Revive
by mangaluva
Summary: Even after five years of being a trainer, Lyra's still taking on new challenges. But not all of these are in good fun, and not all will end with a faint. Rated for infrequent use of language and frequent use of dark themes.
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

_From the files of the Indigo League_

_Name: _Lyra Hearton

_Age: _15

_Trainer class: _Indigo Champion

_Status notes: _Indigo Champion for over three years. Currently emerging as an authority on Pokémon growth and natural evolution. Her research is largely conducted on the mostly off-limits Mt Silver.

_Name: _Gold Elm

_Age: _15

_Trainer class: _Ace Trainer

_Status notes: _Defeated the Johto League three years ago but only ever achieved seven Kanto badges. Defeated the official champion Lance but not the true champion Lyra, so refuses to be classed as a champion. Currently taking on the Hoenn League.

_Name: _Crystal Christie

_Age: _15

_Trainer class: _Watcher

_Status notes: _Never challenged the Indigo League though she acquired the minimum eight badges. Has a larger passion for tracking and observing Pokémon in their natural habitats, and is becoming highly knowledgeable on the subject. Currently travelling Hoenn with Gold.

_Name: _Silver ?

_Age: _16

_Trainer class:_ Dragon Tamer

_Status notes:_ Reformed thief who has spent the past three years training with the dragon clan in the Dragon's Den. Family is unknown as he has never disclosed a surname. Currently returning to the Dragon's Den after an unknown trip abroad.

_Name: _Blue Oak

_Age: _18

_Trainer class: _Leader (Viridian Gym)

_Status notes: _Strongest of the sixteen Indigo League leaders and former League Champion, though he voluntarily relinquished the title after a loss to Red Ketchum. Currently officially residing in the Viridian Gym, though he wanders so often, particularly to Mt Silver to join Lyra Hearton's investigations, odds aren't great that he'll be there if you call.

_Name: _Daisy Oak

_Age: _21

_Trainer class: _Coordinator

_Status notes: _Never applied for a trainer's license, though an accomplished former coordinator; Daisy Oak lives with her grandfather and, until he moved to Viridian, her little brother Blue Oak. Daisy is a renowned carer whose Pokémon grooming and massage services are particularly sought-after. Mostly helps care for the multitude of trainer-stored Pokémon living at her grandfather's.

_Name: _Leaf Ketchum

_Age: _16

_Trainer class:_ Ruin Maniac

_Status notes:_ Achieved six Kanto League badges four years ago, and then abandoned the Indigo League in favour of spending her time exploring old ruins and studying ancient and legendary Pokémon. Currently working with the Research Centre in the Ruins of Alph.

_Name: _Red Ketchum

_Age: _14 (at death)

_Trainer class: _Indigo Champion

_Status notes:_ Kanto League champion six and a half years ago. First Champion of the Johto League a year later. Retreated into training on Mt Silver. Murdered by Team Rocket several months before their abortive second rise.

-P-

_Shock and horror, it's a Pokémon fic instead of a Detective Conan/Magic Kaito one! But I really wanted to write this, so I'll put up the first couple of chapters and the prologue and see what people make of it._

_I've been a fan of Pokémon since the nineties. It WAS my childhood. For about ten years, Gold and Crystal were my absolute favourite games, and weren't ousted until I got Pokémon HeartGold. This fic is working on the fairly reasonable assumption that the events of Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver, from first getting your Pokémon to defeating Red, took roughly twenty months or so, and that the events of this story take place about three years later. It follows on somewhat from my oneshot "Silence In The Snow", though it's not a straight sequel; SITS was written to be applicable from almost anyone's perspective, so while Lyra would have had a similar experience, she wouldn't have had precisely the same experience. That's how I'm explaining any discontinuities XD_

_SITS notwithstanding, this is really my first foray into the Pokémon fandom, so feedback would be appreciated enormously. This fic is based off of the games rather than the manga or anime (though you may notice little shout outs to both ;) ) so please let me know if you think I've created a believable world from that, and if you think I've created good characters out of silent protagonists. Of course, don't be afraid to let me know if you think I've failed utterly as well XD_

_Anyway, I'll stop rambling now._

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation.


	2. Chapter I

_**Chapter I**_

"It's okay, there's nothing wrong with your Chimchar," Lyra assured the boy, looking over the fire ape. "Quite the opposite. I believe it's nearly at the Monferno stage."

"Monferno?" the kid asked, crouching down next to the orange monkey and examining the blue ridge over its eyes that he had been so worried about. "What's that mean?"

"Only the babies of this species are known as Chimchar," Lyra explained, opening her Pokédex to show the boy images of Chimchar, Monferno and Infernape. "Adults are known as Infernape. Monferno is the adolescent stage, you could say; you've probably noticed that your Chimchar has grown larger and more muscular, particularly the flame on its tail. The emergence of the blue ridge indicates that it's become a Monferno. As it keeps growing larger, it'll develop more hard yellow pads on its knees, wrists and ankles. It'll grow more white fur as well, especially around the head. When the ridge on its forehead turns red, and the flame goes out on its tail and instead ignites on top of its head, that'll be when it's reached full maturity. Then it'll be an Infernape."

"Wow," the boy gaped, staring at his Monferno, and then hugging it. "That's great! How long will that take?"

"It all depends," Lyra said with a smile, snapping her Pokédex closed. This was the kind of thing that appeared in no textbook. "In the wild, not all ever even reach full maturity. Almost all will grow into Monferno, but only the toughest few will grow into Infernape. Pokémon only grow as fast as they need to; if they fight a lot, they'll need to be tougher, and so they'll grow tougher. If they never have to fight, they might never grow. That's why Pokémon who travel with dedicated trainers grow much stronger than wild ones- like my Typhlosion," she added, patting the paw of her oldest Pokémon fondly. She roared at her in a friendly fashion, before returning to sniffing around Monferno, the two fire-types occasionally spitting embers at each other. "If you want it to grow big and strong quickly, just keep training and battling with it."

"Do you think he's strong enough to take on a gym?" The boy said excitedly. Lyra smiled. Gyms. It must have been three years since she last fought one. Maybe she should take on the Sinnoh or Hoenn challenges?

"It depends which gym," she cautioned him. "Some are stronger than others, and you have to think about types. If you're only using Monferno, you might want to challenge a grass gym like Erika's or Gardenia's; Bugsy's bug gym wouldn't be a bad idea either. You really don't want to take on a water gym like Misty's, Juan's or Wake's. Really, though, you might want to work on building up a diverse team before taking on any leagues, because leader's types vary, and you can't take them on with one type alone."

"Oh… okay…" the kid frowned at Monferno. "I don't think I can catch any good wild Pokémon until Chi- um, Monferno's stronger."

"Any Pokémon is strong if you train it," Lyra reminded him, "but here's a good tip for training fire Pokémon, especially ones with an external flame like Monferno. Train somewhere cold. Don't go into a blizzard or anything, but training at altitude, where the air is colder and thinner, will make your Pokémon's power level raise faster."

"Where it's cold?" the kid asked, looking confused. "I thought that would be tougher…"

"It will be tougher," Lyra admitted, "but that's why Monferno will grow faster. He'll have to use more power to keep his flames going, so when you come back down to a normal ground level, he'll be able to produce higher power levels with less effort. The longer you train at altitude, the stronger he'll be when you come back down, but don't push yourselves, okay? Mt Moon in Kanto's a good spot for this sort of thing, but judging by the fact that you had a Chimchar, you're from Sinnoh, right?"

"That's right!" The kid said with a grin. "We're here on holiday. Mom and dad wanted to visit Sprout Tower, but I don't want to listen to monks all day, so Monferno and I made the trip to New Bark to meet Professor Elm, and we heard _you_ were here." His voice held a hint of awe; Lyra was both proud and embarrassed that her name was even known all the way in Sinnoh.

"Those monks have some valuable things to say," she laughed, remembering the calm monks who had been some of the first trainers that she'd battled, and their wise leader who had given her Flash. "And battling their Bellsprout wouldn't be bad for Monferno either. But anyway, the slopes of Mt Coronet might be a good place for you to train Monferno. Don't go too high, though; or at least go with a friend, okay?"

"Okay!" The boy said with a grin, looking at his Monferno. "We can handle that, right?" The orange monkey bellowed happily in response.

"Good luck, you two!" Lyra called as they ran off. Third trainer this week, but he was the first to come from Sinnoh. Trainers were always coming looking for her, though it was rare that they caught her at home, rather than making her mom call her down from Mt Silver, where she spent most of her time raising and study Pokémon, sometimes with Blue Oak. The mountain was a special place for both of them. Some trainers wanted to challenge her, some just wanted to know the secrets of training League-beating Pokémon. They were inevitably disappointed; "Just train like stink" isn't really the kind of impressive secret that most are looking for. Her extensive studies had taught her the fastest way to train most types of Pokémon, allowing her to give out tips like the one she'd just given the kid, but it would still take a lot of dedicated training- and a larger party- before that kid would be a master.

"_Mt Coronet_," she thought, examining the map on her Pokégear and zooming into the mountain in question. "_I've heard that odd things happen to Pokémon evolution there… some radiation from the mountain, maybe? Is it connected to the odd radiation from elemental stones?_" She was quickly becoming an expert on natural growth of Pokémon, but how the radiation from certain rocks could affect Pokémon growth and development continued to stump her. Maybe Mt Coronet could hold the truth. "_I could take the Sinnoh League gyms too. I'm a League champion, but for some proud Hoenn and Sinnoh trainers, that isn't good enough, not if I haven't beaten _their_ gyms. I think they have different Leagues too, though. I wonder if I should ask Blue to meet me there?_" The leader of Viridian City gym in Kanto, and an old friend of hers, Blue frequently joined her in her training excursions, sharing his own discoveries and the discoveries of his grandfather, Professor Oak. He was renowned as one of the toughest leaders in the _world_, particularly given that, unlike other leaders, he didn't specialize in a single type. Most trainers would alter their teams to fill them with Pokémon that had a type advantage over whatever gym they were about to challenge, but to beat Blue you needed a strong and balanced team, which Lyra approved of. Her team beat everyone _because_ they were strong and balanced, and Johto natives too. She was such a homegirl.

"Hey, mom?" she called, wandering back into her house. "Can I get some of my money? I need to go to Sinnoh, so I might not be back for a while…"

Maybe it was about time she stopped saving money with her mom. She was fifteen already, and besides, there were only so many toy Pokémon she needed.

-P-

"Mt Coronet? I've heard of it, but… Dunno, I've never been to Sinnoh… what's the nearest city? Wait, let me check… hey, Daisy?" Blue asked, putting his hand over the Pokégear's mouthpiece. "Do you have a map of Sinnoh?"

"Going farther than usual to meet up with your girlfriend, aren't you?" Daisy said, unable to miss the chance to snark at her little brother as she dug out the desired map. The teen in question just rolled his eyes at her before examining the map.

"Hmmm… Celestic Town is closest, but it's a little small… no leaders, either. I'd like the chance to meet some of my Sinnoh counterparts, and I might get to bunk at one of their places as well…. Eterna City? Sounds good. I'll give Gardenia a call. Are you going there right now?... Ah, I see. Want to set a date to meet in Eterna? Hmm… okay… okay… sounds good. See you then, Lyra." He clicked off his Pokégear and gave Daisy a deadpan look. "What?"

"You what?" Daisy responded, deliberately obtuse and focusing on massaging Oddish. It gave a happy purring sound as she rubbed the sensitive skin around the base of the leaves. Blue didn't break the glare.

"The girlfriend jokes," he said, sounding irritated. "Would you quit getting on my case about Lyra?"

"I'm not getting on your case," Daisy argued, not looking up from Oddish. "I _like_ Lyra. She loves her Pokémon very much, every one of them. I'm merely commenting on the fact that whenever she calls to say that she's heading up Mt Silver or that she's made a great discovery, you drop everything to fly out there. Not that it's unusual for you to drop your gym duties or anything, but still."

"Just because I don't feel like spending all my time in a lab coat like Gramps doesn't mean I'm not interested in Pokémon research," Blue replied without pause. "Besides, it helps me become a tougher leader. Anyone getting past me to the Elite Four is going to have to _earn_ it."

"You're not kidding," Daisy complained. "I can't remember hearing about anyone beating you since Lyra. Kids are forking out for SS Aqua tickets or a rail pass to Johto to get the minimum eight Indigo League badges rather than battle you. Just because your job is to protect the Earth Badge doesn't mean that you shouldn't let _anyone_ have it, y'know."

"Doesn't mean I should let just _anybody_ win it, either," he snorted, leaving the house. "I'm going to go see what Gramps knows about Mt Coronet."

"That kid," Daisy mused aloud to her Oddish. She frequently talked to the Pokémon she was massaging, since a constant, pleasant human voice was often soothing, and it helped her figure things out, or to Blissey, who was a good listener and always kept her from getting worked up about anything. Often, she talked about her little brother or her grandfather, most of the drama in her life centring on them. "Well, he's not a kid anymore- he's almost eighteen and all- but sometimes, he is just such a kid. He's all but declaring Lyra a source of cooties, isn't he?" Oddish just cooed as she kneaded the little round feet. "I'd say they're a good match, though. Somebody as arrogant as Blue needs to be with someone who can hand his ass to him when necessary, and the only one who can do that anymore is Lyra…" she descended into a slightly sad silence. It had been more than three years since Red's funeral, and even longer since she'd last seen the boy that she and Blue had grown up with, but it still made her very sad to think of his cold fate on Mt Silver. The four Admins of Team Rocket were spending life in prison for their many crimes, and the leader of Team Rocket had never reappeared after vanishing from Viridian gym after fighting Red- Lyra had once said, cryptically, that he'd never reappear- but that didn't bring Red back. Nothing could ever do that.

"Want to take a break, Daisy?"

"That'd be great," Daisy agreed, relaxing a little as Red's mom walked in, carrying her next customer. Bereft and lonely since Red's death, with Leaf still travelling and making contact as sparsely as her brother had, the older woman had begun helping Daisy out with her Pokémon care service and was quite an accomplished Pokémon masseuse. She showered as much love and care on the Pokémon as she once had on her children.

Daisy stretched as she wandered into the kitchen to make some tea, not realizing how stiff she'd become. She always tensed up when she thought about Red.

-P-

Lyra's first stop, once she got into Vermillion, was not the port but in fact the Pokémon Centre to put Ho-oh back into storage, which thanks to the customized system that she'd had Bill set up sent all of her stored Pokémon to Mt Silver. Her Pokémon stuck together on Mt Silver, with certain ones like Ho-oh keeping the tough wild Pokémon away from the rest. She hated keeping her Pokémon confined into the PC, and with Pokémon like Ho-oh she didn't feel that it was a good idea anyway.

She had flown Ho-oh to Vermillion, landing a little outside of the town and then returning Ho-oh to its pokéball to keep it secret. Outside of the Kimono Girls and the Professors Oak and Elm, the world at large was unaware that Ho-oh had been captured and some people still weren't even aware that Ho-oh was real. After a tough battle, it had deemed her a worthy master, and she often used it to Fly due to its strength, speed and size (it could fly extremely high above the clouds, preventing anyone from spotting it, and its immense body heat kept Lyra from freezing at those heights), but she rarely used it to battle, since she didn't want her possession of it to be common knowledge. She could have flown it all the way to Sinnoh, but she wasn't sure if she could land inconspicuously near Eterna, and in any case she wasn't 100% certain how to get to Sinnoh anyway, which would necessitate flying below the clouds, a big taboo for when using Ho-oh; no other flying Pokémon that she owned was strong enough to fly that far.

Ho-oh swapped for Noctowl, Lyra made for the port to find out if there were any ferries to Sinnoh. She had taken ferries to Johto and the Sevii Islands from Vermillion, and she knew that there was a service going to Slateport in Hoenn, but she wasn't sure about Sinnoh.

"Morning," she greeted the sailor on door duty, tucking a stray strand of brown hair under her white hat. She had kept the hat, even after updating her wardrobe after deciding that dungarees only worked before you hit puberty. Today she was wearing denim capris, her usual favourites when not halfway up a frozen mountain, along with a red tank top and a white jacket to match the hat. The sailor snapped to attention as she approached. Guys kept doing that these days.

"Good morning, miss," he greeted her, a little red. "How may I help you today?"

"Are there any ferries going to Sinnoh?" She asked, looking over the timetable, which only had listings for the regular ferries to Olivine City, though if you had a Rainbow Pass you could acquire a timetable to the Sevii Islands. As a League champion, she had a Universal Pass, though just how universal it was was probably about to be tested.

"Umm… I'm afraid that none of our ferries go that far directly," the man explained regretfully. "However, I believe that if you get a ferry to Slateport, they'll have a ferry to Sunyshore City in Sinnoh. The next ferry to Slateport's leaving in about an hour, if you want to take it."

"Yes, please," Lyra agreed, presenting her pass for inspection. It was passed and she was soon sitting in the waiting room for the Slateport ferry, making notes in her Pokedex and wondering if she couldn't call someone to chat to kill the time.

"Well hey, Lyra. Someone finally kick your ass out of Johto?"

"You wish, Silver," Lyra snorted in response to the familiar grating voice. She turned to face the cold-eyed teen, his face as always partially obscured by his long mane of red hair. Well, maybe that was a harsh way to describe him; she knew well that Silver was no longer the cruel boy who had broken into Professor Elm's lab, and did care for and respect his Pokémon deeply, especially his Feraligatr. "What are you doing here, anyway? Last I heard, you were still living in the Dragon's Den. Heard you were becoming a pretty good dragon tamer."

"You have to be a strong trainer to handle strong Pokémon," Silver said, aloof as ever. "As it happens, I was investigating something."

"Investigating what?"

"None of your business. Where are _you_ going?"

"Oh, I got bored and thought I'd try the Sinnoh League…" Lyra was almost glad to get off the topic of Silver's "investigations", which she had to show cursory interest in to hide the fact that she knew _exactly_ what she was looking for.

She also knew that he'd never find it, and could never stem the guilt that this was her fault. She never saw precisely where Giovanni went when he left the cave, but the way his voice abruptly cut off before the splash didn't leave too many options.

"… So I'm afraid you'll have to go to someone else for your asskicking for a while," she added. "Gold's still hanging around, why not go bug him?"

"Hmph," Silver snorted, flipping his hair as he turned to strut away. "I have better things to do than waste time with you and your dweeb friends. Good riddance to you."

"Nice to see you too," she called sarcastically after him. He may not be a rotten, abusive thief any more, but Silver was still a jerk. Still, ever since the incident in Ilex Forest, Lyra always felt bad about handing his ass to him on a regular basis, but her friend Gold never felt any such compunctions. He and Silver went at it like Seviper and Zangoose whenever they came across each other. "_Probably because they both have a crush on Crystal,_" she thought with a smirk, thinking of her second friend growing up, an extremely pretty girl who just didn't know it. That was probably a good thing; Crystal was the toughest, most down-to-earth girl Lyra knew. She was probably the toughest of the three of them, League rankings notwithstanding.

"All boarding for Slateport City," the intercom called, prompting her to her feet and onto the ferry. Well, let somebody else worry about Silver. For now, she just needed to get to her cabin, relax, and maybe email around and find out if anybody knew anything about the Sinnoh leaders.

-P-

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	3. Chapter II

_**Chapter II**_

"It's so beautiful!" Lyra sighed, stretching widely as she stepped off of the gangplank. "How about a little air, guys? The sea breeze smells great!"

Other trainers were releasing their Pokémon as they got off of the boat, filling the air with yawns and cries as the Pokémon started stretching as well. Lyra plucked all six of her Pokéballs from her belt and popped them open, careful to aim one at the sea.

"Tyyyyphlooooo!"

"Pharo! Ampharos!"

"Gyaaaaraaa!"

"Noc noc noc!"

"Girafarig!"

"Suuudooowooodooo!"

Lyra smiled as her Pokémon stretched out, sparked up, flared up, and otherwise got comfortable. Several trainers were staring at Gyarados; well, you didn't see a red one every day.

"Isn't it beautiful here?" she said as her Pokémon crowded around her, Gyarados leaning its head over the guard rail to the sea. "Look at all these solar panels! I bet that'll charge you guys right up, right, Ampharos, Typhlosion?" The fire and electric Pokémon in question roared appreciatively as they walked along the glittering black panels. "Anyway, the map says that the Pokémon Centre's just along the beachfront there, so we can all go together, including Gyarados. C'mon!"

All six of the Pokémon with Lyra were looking around curiously, as unfamiliar with Sinnoh as Lyra was. It was similar to their reaction the first time she'd gone through Tohjo Falls to Kanto; a new land, a different air about it. Killing time in Slateport between ferries, she'd visited the Maritime Museum, and had been fascinated by the differences between the water samples from four continents. Pewter Museum had different earth types from the four continents, as well. It was like the four continents had been created entirely separately, yet oddly, when Kanto and Johto had first contacted Hoenn and Sinnoh, all four societies had advanced to similar levels, only swapping a few individual advances in computer technology and the like. Sometimes, people were a greater mystery than Pokémon.

"Okay guys, do any of you need a rest?" All of the Pokémon shook their heads, having been doing nothing except rest in their pokéballs all day on the boat. "Okay then, wait out here while I ask about the gyms, got it?"

The Pokémon Centre, like every other Centre she'd been in, was a large open-plan place, with the Pokémon care desk taking pride of place but with a canteen visible down one side of the room and a comfortable-looking area for humans to relax in, which judging by the sofa-beds made a good dorm for any trainers spending the night in Sunyshore.

"Good afternoon," the nurse in charge greeted her. "May I help you?"

"I just wanted to know if there was a gym in this town," Lyra enquired. The nurse smiled.

"You're new to the Sinnoh League, aren't you?" she said. Lyra nodded a little hesitantly. She was used to being recognized all over Johto and Kanto; being just another kid trainer was a bit of a nostalgic feeling. It was also kind of annoying.

"Yeah, I just got to Sinnoh and decided to take it on," Lyra said. "Can you tell me if there's a gym locally?"

"There's Volkner's gym, but you might not want to start with him," The nurse laughed. "He's the toughest leader in Sinnoh. Most people start with Roark or Gardenia…"

"This is my first time in Sinnoh, but far from my first time facing gym leaders," Lyra assured her. "_Starting off with their top leader will give me a good idea of what kind of power levels I'm up against here._"

"He's an electric leader," The nurse said, though her smile was a little strained. "His gym's crackling with electricity, which is unfortunately a bit of a drain on the town's resources…"

"Seriously?" Lyra said in surprise. "I would've expected the opposite. Lt. Surge produces his own power from his electric Pokémon."

"Oh, Kanto's Lt. Surge?" the nurse said, nodding. "I've heard of him. I'm afraid that Volkner feels that his Pokémon are a bit above that."

"Sounds like he needs an emergency ego deflation," Lyra said, which made the nurse giggle, though she stifled it quickly. "So where's his gym?"

"It's at the far north-west end of the town," the nurse said, marking it on the map. "Right behind the market…"

"MARKET?" Lyra squealed, to the nurse's evident surprise. Lyra wasn't known as a shopaholic as much as a Pokémon expert, but she could never spend enough. Perhaps she got it from her mom. She turned to run to the mark- erm, gym- but the nurse stopped her, laughing.

"Here, take this pamphlet on the Sinnoh League," she giggled, handing over the folded paper, "and here's a Sinnoh badge case. Good luck!"

"Thank you!" Lyra called, leaving the Centre. Several people had crowded around to stare at her Pokémon; Pokémon that had reached their advanced power levels were probably a rare sight, and Gyarados was always conspicuous.

"Okay, guys," she announced to her Pokémon. "I'd better put you back in your pokéballs for now, because we have our first gym challenge!" They all gave a defiant roar in response to the challenge, as geared up for a battle as she was. "Return, everybody! Except Typhlosion, of course," she adding, flashing out red light to return all of her Pokémon except for the fire-type to their pokéballs. "We're going to an electric-type gym, Typhlosion," she explained as she started walking, a few of the more curious gawkers following her. "Like Lt Surge, though he claims to be stronger. Well, we'll see, won't we?" Typhlosion rumbled in agreement.

League regulations allowed trainers to walk around cities and towns with one of their Pokémon free, something that had previously been banned for security reasons, and whenever possible Lyra preferred to walk with Typhlosion. Typhlosion had been her first Pokémon, given to her as a baby- a Cyndaquil- by Professor Elm, to protect her as she went on an errand for him. It had felt great to have a Pokémon of her very own, having been greatly jealous of the Marill that Gold had gotten for his birthday a year before, and she'd showered love on Cyndaquil from the first moment they'd met. She'd never failed to come through for her, and she'd grown strong and fast. Good luck separating them now, just like nothing could make Gold store or trade his Azumarill, or Crystal her Meganium. She hadn't seen her two oldest human friends in a few months, but they were never far from her thoughts, and she was sure that Typhlosion often thought of the Totodile and Chikorita that she'd grown up with, who had been stolen by Silver and given to Crystal respectively, after Professor Elm had given Cyndaquil to Lyra.

"Doesn't matter how strong he thinks he is, he won't beat us," Lyra muttered to Typhlosion with a grin as the gym came into view.

The lights were out, the place empty.

"Jeez, is he an early sleeper or something?" Lyra complained, looking at her watch. It was only seven. She'd endured nine hours of high-speed sea transport, including a one-hour layover, to find out that the toughest gym leader in Sinnoh was an early nighter? "Well, we might at least check out the market before we turn in too."

-P-

"Now that's odd," Leaf muttered, pausing and crouching down to more closely examine the symbol.

"_Everything's_ odd around here, Leaf," one of the other scientists complained.

"Yeah, but this is unusually weird," Leaf said, waving the man over and indicating a break in the long lines of black symbols covering the walls in the Ruins of Alph. "Look, this one's hollowed out, as if the Unown's been removed…"

"Wait, that's not right…" The man said with a frown. "We examined this section already, weeks ago, and there wasn't a break then…" he pulled out his laptop and scanned through several hundred near-identical photographs of the odd letters. "Look, I'm pretty sure this is it here. The damage to the wall around it matches, see?" Indeed, in the photo, there was a set of claw-like scratches above and to the left of a black Unown "O", but when Leaf looked back to the wall, there was only a hollow in the wall.

"It's like it… left…" she said slowly, jerking as she heard something. "Did you hear that?" She yelped, spinning around.

"Hear what?" the scientist asked, looking around, and then yelping abruptly. "Ah! Look!" He yelled, pointing at the opposite wall, which a moment ago had nothing but endless black carvings.

Now, Leaf could see at least three hollows where Unown had been.

She heard the odd sound again, like an aural shimmer, again and again, until the very _air_ was shimmering; every time she looked around, more Unown were missing from the wall, more and more and more…

"I-I'm outta here!" the other scientist yelled, dropping his laptop and running for it.

"Wait!" Leaf yelled, spinning around as something else began to move in the darkness. For a moment, she couldn't see a thing, the scientist having taken the flashlight with him; then white shapes began glowing in the darkness.

The eyes of Unown.

Leaf scrabbled for the laptop as she felt her knees give way; she just managed to snap a photograph with the built-in camera before darkness engulfed her again.

-P-

"Oh, that's just gorgeous," Lyra sighed, stopping to lean against a guard rail to watching the sunset, shifting a couple of bags so as not to crush her purchases. Typhlosion spat some embers at the beautiful sight, an expression of appreciation in her kind. The golden light of the sunset reflected off of the lighthouse behind her, painting everything a beautiful orange-gold and setting the solar panels alight. "Wow, I'd love to live in a place like this."

"Eh, it's not that interesting here."

Lyra turned to see a young man sitting on the steps in the entrance to the lighthouse, watching the sunset with his chin cupped in his left hand, left elbow propped on his upright left knee, and his face propping up a supremely bored expression. He had very spiky yellow hair and was wearing a blue army-style jacket, which looked vaguely familiar, though Lyra couldn't place it until she spotted the gold-and-silver badge on his lapel.

"Volker, right?" she said, turning her back to the sunset to face him. "Here I thought you were an early sleeper. I guess you're just a wanderer instead."

"There aren't any interesting challenges at my gym," he pouted, looking over Typhlosion, who admittedly probably looked significantly less intimidating with her arms full of large bags of shopping. "Are you looking to give me one?"

"You bet I am," Lyra said, pointing at the Beacon Badge. "Care for a match?"

"Why not," Volker sighed, looking no less bored, just standing up and dusting himself off. "Let's head for my gym. What's your name?"

"I'm Lyra of New Bark Town," Lyra introduced herself, "and this is Typhlosion. I'm the reigning champion of the Indigo League, and before long I'll be champion of the Sinnoh League too!"

"You'll have to get past me first," Volker pointed out, but for the first time, he smiled. "A champion, huh? Well, this might finally be interesting."

-P-

"Come back when you've trained a little more," Blue said, by way of goodbye as the angry kid ran for the Pokémon Centre. As he'd suspected, by the time he got back from visiting Gramps and Daisy, there'd been a small group of trainers waiting to take him on, none of whom had given any real fight except for a fiery girl named Naomi who had sworn to come back after taking on the rest of the Kanto gyms. That one might be in with a chance, but the rest looked like the kind of kids who trained Pokémon for a while but ended up working in Poké Marts and Silph Co. and the like.

She'd used a Typhlosion, which reminded him of Lyra, though of course Lyra had won. He closed up the gym for the night and headed to the back rooms that he'd converted into a pretty big apartment and set of training halls. He'd even sunk to getting his sister to come in and help him redecorate, not wanting to have too many occasions to remember just what the large rooms had previously been used for.

He let his Pokémon out into the training rooms, since he didn't like keeping them in their pokéballs when home, and headed for the kitchen to make everyone some dinner. Even with the number of Pokémon he kept, it was a little lonely sometimes in the gym, without any regular human presence. It must have been even lonelier for Red, up Mt Silver with only six Pokémon, but being on his own had never bothered Red. At one time, Blue had envied that, seen it as one of Red's strengths.

Now he really, really wished that his fellow champion and childhood friend hadn't gone alone so often, hadn't made it usual for him to go months without contact.

Oddly enough, he mused, staring absentmindedly at the various photographs on the fridge as he started boiling some water, the only person who seemed to get the often confused nature of his memories of Red, and his feeling about his death, was somebody who hadn't even known Red when he was alive. That was, if you believed that Lyra had really fought a ghost on top of Mt Silver.

Ghost Pokémon were a fact. Some scientists were seriously pressing the notion that all Pokémon became a ghost Pokémon of one sort or another after death, depending on the nature of their soul, though the theory was difficult to research as it was obviously well outside of moral boundaries to kill dozens of Pokémon as test subjects. Was it so much more far-fetched to believe that humans could linger in this world as well, if they'd left something unfinished, if something still preyed on their minds? Lyra had two theories; that he couldn't rest under the burden of being the best in the world; and that, more classically, he needed to know that Team Rocket had been and could be destroyed by others. Lyra still didn't know which it was, if it was a case of which, and neither did Blue. He desperately _wanted_ to believe that Lyra had defeated a living person on the top of Mt Silver, that the police were just covering up a breakout from prison, but he knew that what he _really_ wanted to believe was that he could have done something. _Anything_.

"_I keep thinking that if I'd chased after him instead of hurrying my Pokémon off of the mountain, he'd still be alive. Seeing you and your sister and his family and everyone at his funeral makes me feel like I should have been able to do something. But I have to accept that I couldn't, y'know? I have to accept that he was dead before I ever got up there. I'll go mad with guilt if I let myself believe that I failed._"

Amen to that, Lyra.

"_She's right, though,_" he sighed, blowing some steam off his dinner. "_It's just weird, when you're fourteen, to think that a guy you've grown up with is dead. You're just not prepared for death at that age. _I_ wasn't prepared for death. Even after what happened to Raticate, I just wasn't ready for it. I wasn't ready to accept that that guy's gone forever. Do I have a handle on it yet? I'm used to not seeing that guy for months at a time, so three years on I guess it still wouldn't surprise me if he walked into the gym and challenged me right now…_"

Of course, Daisy was having just as hard a time getting over Red's death, for different reasons. That annoyed Blue as much as anything else; if his big sister was going to get a crush on anybody, it should at least be someone who was alive for him to pummel. To distract himself, he flicked on the radio, spinning through the channels until he came across some news, though it was a Johto channel rather than a Kanto one.

"… _strange phenomena in the Ruins of Alph may already have claimed the lives of two scientists. Leaf Ketchum and Harold Mitchell have not been seen since the collapse in the ruins, though photographs on a laptop which was recovered show Unown appearing to _vanish_ from the walls…_"

Blue turned off the television almost instantly after turning it on, shovelling down his dinner and mentally selecting a party to take with him to Johto. He still had two weeks until he needed to meet Lyra at Mt Coronet, and he was damned if he was going to lose two childhood friends before he was out of his teens.

-P-

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation.


	4. Chapter III

_**Chapter III**_

"Quite a place you've got here," Lyra commented, looking around at the exposed gears, moving platforms, flashing lights and sparking electrical paraphernalia of Volkner's gym. He really must be draining power like a lightning rod, and what was worse, it looked like most of it had no real purpose other than looking cool.

"I rigged most of this up just for something to do," Volkner confirmed, waving his hand flippantly at the machinery. "I don't even have to train anymore; nobody's been a challenge in a long time."

"You're going to regret your lack of training," Lyra cautioned him, moving into the challenger's box on the side of the field as Volkner strode across to the leader's side. "I'm using my team of six. How many do you have?"

"Five, but numbers are not going to be advantage enough," Volkner said arrogantly, drawing a pokéball from his pocket. "We battle until one of us runs out of Pokémon, no time limit. Sound good?"

"Fine by me," Lyra agreed, nodding at Typhlosion. "Typhlosion's gonna go first." Typhlosion roared, her fire collar flaring up as she lumbered forward into the field. Volkner smiled.

"Raichu can take that," he said, throwing out his pokéball and revealing the Kanto-native electric mouse. Lyra appraised it carefully; judging by how fat its cheek sacs were, it was fairly high-levelled, but that wouldn't be enough to save it.

"Typhlosion, let's start and finish it with a Rock Smash!" Lyra called, spurring Typhlosion into a blur of motion; Typhlosion looked large and lumbering, but were deceptively quick when they ran on all fours, which she did to dart towards Raichu, rising up onto her hind legs to bring back both paws for a devastating, boulder-crushing attack.

"That Typhlosion's fast, but Raichu's faster! Make an electric Light Screen!" Volker called sharply. Raichu whipped around, flicking its charged tail through the air to make an almost physical wall of electricity to absorb Typhlosion's blow. Not all of it- Raichu still slammed back into the ground hard enough to crack it- but it was able to get up again afterwards. Typhlosion reared back, roaring and shuddering.

"Typhlosion? You're paralyzed!" Lyra cried, recognizing the symptoms. "I wondered why that Light Screen was crackling with electricity. You combined it with Thunder Wave, right?"

"Right on!" Volkner said with a wink. "Now give it a Brick Break!"

"Blast Burn, Typhlosion!" Lyra called, not really wanting to reveal the most powerful of fire moves so early into the match but being short of options with Typhlosion's body paralyzed. She didn't need to move, however, to summon bursts of fire, shooting from her mane in a powerful wave and blasting Raichu dead-on as it approached for the final blow.

"RAAAAAAIIIIII!" The orange mouse screamed, blown across the room and to Volkner's side, who returned it in a flash of red light.

"First round to you, I guess," he sighed. "So that's the infamous Blast Burn, huh? Powerful. But, like all powerful moves, I bet it's drained Typhlosion, and since it's paralyzed too, there's plenty of time for my next lightning-quick warrior to finish it off!" He threw out another pokéball, the light inside reforming itself into a yellow, spiky dog. "Right, Jolteon? Quick Attack oughtta be enough to finish it off!"

"Typhlosion!" Lyra cried as her friend was sent flying by the deceptively powerful blow from the smaller Pokémon. "Return! Well," she added, her fingers dancing over the Pokeballs on her belt as she selected her next Pokémon, "I guess I've been hurting for some decent training too, huh?"

"Speak for yourself, you're already shocking _me_ back to life," Volkner said with a wide grin. "What've you got next?"

"Try my Sudowoodo on for size!" Lyra offered, releasing the rock tree as she spoke. Sudowoodo sang happily as he was released, smiling goofily as he always did at Jolteon.

"Knock that tree outta the ground with another Quick Attack, Jolteon!" Volkner commanded, sending the yellow hound into motion again. Unfortunately, all Jolteon got was a headache when, instead of headbutting wood, it hit solid rock.

"Sudowoodo may look like a tree, but it's a _rock_-type," Lyra tutted. "Sudowoodo, show him, will you? Rock Slide!"

"Sudoooooo!" Sudowoodo sang, flinging the rock orbs that "grew" on his hands up into the air until they cascaded down on Jolteon.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge, and try a Charge Beam!" Volkner yelled frantically. Jolteon charged up, but had to hold its attack as it focused on dodging rapidly around the cascading stones, and didn't manage to avoid all of them either. Looking battered and sore, it put on an extra burst of speed to nip around behind Sudowoodo, firing on it from almost point-blank range. Unfortunately for him, this did little good as well.

"Sudowoodo imitates a tree by keeping itself grounded in the earth," Lyra explained as Sudowoodo showed no reaction whatsoever to the powerful charge, "but maybe it's time to pull those roots up. Earthquake, Sudowoodo!"

"Suuuuudooooo!" Sudowoodo cheered as the entire battlefield began to shake, throwing Jolteon around and battering it with the flying debris. Sudowoodo stepped backwards to shield Lyra, who'd gotten a little close to the battlefield in her excitement. When she looked up, Volkner was holding a pokéball and Jolteon was gone.

"Nice choice," Volkner admitted, grinning ever-wider. Then he sighed heavily. "Still, look what you've done to my gym. This'll take ages to fix up."

"It'll be something to do when you're bored," Lyra couldn't resist taunting. Volkner laughed.

"Maybe," he agreed, "but for now, I think this might be perfect for a different kind of electric Pokémon!" He flung a pokéball straight at the depression in the centre of the field, from which Sudowoodo's earthquake originated. "Surf!"

"_Surf_?" Lyra yelped as a wave of water poured from Volkner's pokéball, overflowing the depression and overwhelming Sudowoodo. "Oh, no!"

"Suuuuuu!" Sudowoodo screamed, as the water uprooted and tossed him. He could only imitate a tree so far; he did _not_ like water.

"Just to be sure, Discharge, Lanturn!" Volkner commanded, first alerting Lyra to the presence of the blue-and-yellow electric fish. Electricity crackled through the wash of water that was only just receding from Sudowoodo, not fast enough to avoid electrocuting him.

"Sudowoodo, return!" Lyra called, placing Sudowoodo's pokéball next to Typhlosion's. "I didn't realize you'd have a dual-type, but it's a clever thing to do," she acknowledged. "You've taken out your biggest threat with three of your Pokémon still left. And being a dual electric type, you can't beat it with electricity like you normally would, but there's more than one way to flay a fish, right, Girafarig?"

"Giraaaaafarig!" Girafarig cried in agreement as she appeared in a flash of light, splashing through the shallows playfully. The head on her tail snapped as it jerked around, sniffing out Lanturn.

"A psychic-type, huh?" Volkner mused. "Lanturn, Signal Beam!"

"Girafarig, use Psychic, quickly!" Lyra commanded. Girafarig glowed as it used Psychic, and since she had nowhere to aim, Lanturn still hiding underwater, she lifted all of the water into the air, leaving Lanturn flapping pathetically on the ground as it tried to charge up a signal beam. Unable to move on dry land, it had no way to aim the charge beam of bug-type energy as Girafarig scampered around.

"Girafarig, Grass Knot!" Lyra ordered. Girafarig cried out again, exerting more psychic power to drive grass to grow rapidly from the sodden field, only to writhe and wrap around Lanturn, throwing it around as it flailed helplessly until Volkner returned it in a flash of red light.

"Clever," he said, selecting another pokéball. "But then, I'd expect a psychic-type to be clever. Still, is it strong enough to face Luxray?" The Pokémon in question appeared on his side of the field, a black-and-blue feline creature which maintained absolute poise on the shattered ground.

"Luuuux…"

"Clever as Girafarig is, I know that Luxray can learn several Dark-type moves, and I don't like the matchup," Lyra said, shaking her head and returning Girafarig. "Let's try fighting fire with fire, or rather- well, go on, Ampharos!" she laughed, releasing her electric-type. "Speaking of fire, might as well go with Fire Punch!"

"Aaaaamphhh!" Ampharos yelled, charging forwards with her little fist engulfed in flames.

"Counter it with fire fang, Luxray!" Volkner commanded. Luxray shot forward to meet Ampharos, its mouth full of fire as it bit down on Ampharos' flaming fist. The two froze, growling at each other, stalemated in that position.

"Hang on just a little longer, Ampharos," Lyra encouraged her Pokémon. Ampharos nodded, wincing a little as Luxray's fiery fangs sunk into her arm, but in the end it was Luxray who pulled away, yowling in pain.

"Focus Blast, Ampharos!" Lyra called. "Finish it off!"

"Aaaaaa…" Ampharos cried, charging up her power, before discharging her strength with enough power to turn the very air into a battering ram. "…amphaROOOOOSSSS!"

"Luuuuuuux!" Luxray yowled, collapsing. Volkner returned it, looking confused.

"Fire Fang and Fire Punch ought to have cancelled each other out," he said questioningly. Lyra shook her head.

"Sometimes, it's just down to pure power, and Ampharos is a higher level than your Luxray," she explained, before adding, "besides, Ampharos and Typhlosion have trained together so often, Ampharos has a very fireproof hide."

"Clever," Volkner said, grinning again, "and exciting. I can't remember the last time I was down to my last Pokémon! Go, ELECTIVIRE!"

"Electivire?" Lyra said in surprise as the hulking black-and-yellow Pokémon materialized on the field. "Wow, they're pretty tough to get! Your Electabuzz has to get some serious power levels before it'll grow into an Electivire!"

"Yeah, Electivire's the toughest of the lot," Volkner agreed. "Show her, Electivire. GIGA IMPACT!"

"AMPHAROS!" Lyra yelled as Electivire charged with immense power into her Pokémon. Ampharos was sent flying; it wasn't enough to knock her out, but Ampharos wouldn't stand another hit. "Great job, Ampharos! Return!"

"So what've you got left to handle Electivire?" Volkner said with a smirk.

"Oh, I can handle it," Lyra assured him, selecting a Surf Ball, which clearly confused him. "And so can Gyarados! GO!"

"_Gyarados?_" Volkner said in surprise as the giant red sea serpent coiled like a snake on the field and roared. "It's an unusual colour, but unless that red hide'll stop it taking quad damage from Electivire's Thunderpunch…"

"You'll never land that blow," Lyra said, pointing at Electivire, which was struggling to its feet. "The amount of power needed for Giga Impact had exhausted your Electivire, which gives Gyarados plenty of time to shake things up! EARTHQUAKE!"

Volkner's expression went from mocking to straight-out "WTF?" as Gyarados roared and thrashed his tail, shaking up the field and throwing Electivire about with the shocks. It fell into a fissure and, slammed by the earth walls on either side, did not get up.

"It's over, Volkner," Lyra said, raising her hand to indicate to Gyarados to calm down. Volkner nodded and returned Electivire.

"That was a hell of a match!" He laughed, climbing over the fallen rocks and earth to Lyra's side of the field. "I haven't lost in ages! I'd better get training!"

"You're not the only one," Lyra said ruefully, returning Gyarados and retrieving her pokéballs. "The last time I really battled, my Pokémon could frequently take down anything within seconds."

"I notice that you taught them pretty varied move sets," Volkner said with a nod. "I do that too. Always takes the opponent by surprise. Like that Earthquake!" He plucked a badge off of his lapel and pressed it into Lyra's hands. "Here. You've earned this."

"The Beacon Badge?" Lyra said, examining it. Its shape reminded her of a radio tower.

"Yep," Volkner said, raising his eyebrows when she placed it on her bag strap, right next to the Earth Badge, seventeenth in line. "Wow. All those are the Kanto and Johto badges? Never seen 'em before. There's a hell of a lot."

"Eight for Johto, eight for Kanto, first of eight for Sinnoh," Lyra said with a wink. "Say, what would you say is the best way to Eterna City?"

"Eterna?" Volkner said, scratching his head. "Let me think… Well, best start by going west to the Valour Lakefront." Lyra pulled up a map of Sinnoh on her Pokégear and he marked out the route on the touch screen. "Then you could head north to Veilstone and keep going to Celestic Town, then it's right over Mt Coronet. Or you could go via Pastoria and Hearthome, but it's a bit longer and you still have to go through Mt Coronet. Mt Coronet cuts the continent in half."

"I planned to go to Mt Coronet anyway," Lyra said with a shrug. "Alright, thanks. Good luck rebuilding this place!"

"Yeah, that'll keep us busy for a while," Volkner chuckled, looking around at the destroyed floor. "Well, it's not a total loss; I got to tear the place up with a cute girl!"

"By the way, if you want my advice, you should start having your Pokémon power this place instead of draining the town," Lyra said pointedly.

"But if I do, my Pokémon won't have the energy left over to battle," Volkner said with a frown.

"Train while powering the gym," Lyra encouraged him. "Your Pokémon will learn to produce higher power levels if they need more power. If you train while pushing their power limits like that, then when you battle outside of the gym, you'll be amazed at the power your Pokémon can produce with very little effort."

"I can see how that works," Volkner agreed. "I'd been thinking, you know, of quitting the gym and taking on the Elite Four. My buddy Flint's a member, and I thought that if I could beat some of them, I might get to join the Elite with him. But maybe I'm not good enough yet. So I'll fix this place up and get training, and one day, you'll face me again- this time, when you take on the Elite!"

-P-

It was dark and light all at once, silent and yet awash with strange noises. It was like nothing Leaf had ever experienced, and she'd experienced some seriously weird shit since she'd started working at the Ruins of Alph. She wanted badly to be back home, but when the pain started, she'd settle for staying if that was what it took for the pain to _stop_.

It was between every cell of her body, every mote of her soul. It was coming from all around her, it was coming from _inside_ of her. _And it wouldn't stop._

Then, abruptly, it did. There was only darkness and silence again, and a voice.

_Not good, not enough good. Stronger spirit male than, not enough good._

Was it two voices, or one, or a million? Leaf didn't know or care. Her head was spinning, but she could recognize that the voices were discussing making the pain start again. "No," she whimpered, but her voice didn't carry in the void.

Then Unown were streaming past her, all around, chittering in their oddly childish way, billions of them, light and dark and everywhere…

-P-

_Normally in fics I answer all reviews down here, but that leads to me feeling obligated to reply to someone who just said "Nice chapter", which is a nice sentiment, but a little empty to respond to. So instead I'm going to respond to reviews personally and put an FAQ sort of section down here._

_**Crystal is based on the original female character from Pokémon Crystal, right? **__Yes, she is. And Lyra's based off the new female character from HeartGold/SoulSilver, which is part of why she's the only character with no colour for a name XD_

_**You gave Leaf and Red the same surname… are they related**__? Yes. I'm making Leaf Red's younger sister by two years. And they're named Ketchum because… I needed to give them a surname and couldn't think of anything better XD_

_**Why's Gold sharing a name with Professor Elm?**__ Because I'm fanwanking him into being Professor Elm's son, instead of the little kid he has in the games. There's a bit of fanwanking going on around the characters' family lives, you may have noticed XD_

_**You make a lot of typos, don't you?**__ Yes, yes I do. It's because up until chapter 4, I had no beta. Please let me know if you notice one, and I'll edit it out. I check and recheck the chapters half a dozen times before publishing, but tons still slip through DX_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	5. Chapter IV

_**Chapter IV**_

"Geez, look how late it is," Blue complained, squinting through the darkness. "It's no good, Pidgeot. We'll never find the Ruins of Alph in this. Head for those lights, I think that's Violet City."

"Pidgeooooo!" Pidgeot cooed, banking and heading for the lights of a town. They briefly circled Sprout Tower, helping Blue get his bearings, before several Noctowl flew alongside them, cawing. Another Pidgeot rose up beside Blue, its rider carrying a lantern.

"Blue!" Falkner called. "I thought I recognized that Pidgeot! Come land at my gym!"

"Thanks, Falkner!" Blue yelled in reply over the noise of the wind. Following the flock of Noctowl's glowing eyes, Blue and Pidgeot roosted on the roof of Violet Gym, Blue returning his Pidgeot to his pokéball while Falkner let his remain on its roost as he climbed down the ladder from the roof.

"So what brings you to Johto so late?" Falkner asked once they were both at ground level. Blue nodded in the general direction of the Ruins.

"Heard some weird stuff was happening at the Ruins of Alph," he said, "including an old friend of mine going missing…"

"Yes," Falkner said, nodding solemnly, "the birds have been worried about that too. It's migration season, but I've seen flocks massively diverting their flight paths to avoid going over the Ruins. The last time any bird freely flew over the Ruins must have been… a little under a week ago."

"Do you have any idea why?" Blue questioned. Falkner shook his head.

"I know that the investigative team discovered several new chambers in the ruins, and as the local gym leader and nearest League representative they have to keep me up to date, but the problem is that even _they _ don't seem to know what they found," Falkner complained, rolling his eyes, a gesture almost lost under his overlong dark blue fringe. "The chamber was empty, just Unown carved everywhere, like everywhere else in the Ruins. But then the back wall collapsed, and a new chamber opened up. Leaf Ketchum was going to go down there and investigate it herself, I heard, but apparently she and the scientist who went with her vanished. Unown have vanished from the walls, too."

"Vanished from the _walls_?" Blue queried, for the moment putting aside any discussion of why Leaf would suddenly decide to investigate the Ruins of Alph, sensing that it was similar to her reasons for investigating most of the ruins she did over the past few years. Falkner nodded again.

"You've seen the Ruins, haven't you?" Falkner asked. "Unown carved in the walls, line after line of black-and-white carvings. But in halls that had once been lined with these carvings, there is now nothing but endless hollows in the wall, as if the Unown were simply plucked from the walls. It's unnerved most of the scientists too badly to go into the Ruins, and no Pokémon will go near them either."

"Sounds almost like the Unown took them or something," Blue remarked, careful to sound flippant. Falkner only nodded.

-P-

"Aaaah, it's a beautiful day," Lyra sighed, setting out early onto Route 222. Typhlosion rumbled contentedly in agreement, flaring up her flame collar in the sunlight. The trees were constantly stirring in the sea breeze, which combined with the ever-present wash of the waves made for very pleasant background noise. "Volkner said to head straight west to reach the Valour Lakefront. Hmm?" She paused for a moment to regard a set of steps leading down to the beach. She could see another set of steps across the beach. "Hey, this must be a public beach! I haven't been to the beach in ages! What do you say, should we chill for a bit?"

"Phlooo," Typhlosion sighed in agreement, already heading down the steps to curl up on the hot sand. Lyra let her Pokémon out again, who came out bouncing, having not been in their pokéballs for so long this time.

"Hold it, guys," she said sternly. "As that battle with Volkner showed, we've been slacking on proper training, so we do an hour of practice sparring and _then_ relax, got it?"

Some early-morning fishers stopped to watch as her Pokémon paired off to practice their best moves on each other. Typhlosion met Ampharos' Fire Punches with a Thunderpunch, Gyarados used Surf to manipulate the waves against Girafarig's Psychic power, and Sudowoodo used its Strength to counteract Noctowl's Steel Wings. Lyra liked to have them practice against all sorts of attacks to build up a variety of resistances, and practicing attacks over and over always made them stronger. It helped both Lyra and her Pokémon stay in shape, too; how it helped her Pokémon was obvious, but Lyra often joined them in their training, Surfing with Gyarados or dodging around Sudowoodo. The best way to know just what your Pokémon could and couldn't do was to view the battlefield from their perspective, after all.

"What are _those_?" a snotty voice said from the banks. Lyra rolled away from Sudowoodo, indicating for him to keep up him training with Noctowl, and glanced up at the banks, where a couple of people were watching the training. Several swimmers and fishers were watching from the beach, but judging by the way these two were dressed they wouldn't deign to get down in the sand. Lyra recognized the designer handbag that the girl was sporting from a fashion magazine that she'd flipped through in the Pokémon Centre last night; with the long blonde locks, expensive-looking outfit and even more expensive-looking boyfriend, the girl had to be what Lyra thought of as a "Beauty", vapid fashionstias that she never got bored of beating.

"They're all native to Johto, so I wouldn't be surprised if you hadn't seen them before," she said pleasantly, giving the beauty the benefit of the doubt. "This is Sudowoodo, that one's Noctowl, that's Typhlosion over there, and sparring with her is-"

"They're not very pretty, are they?" the girly said, cutting off Lyra and sticking her nose in the air. "Terrible, aren't they, Trey?"

"Not a patch on you or your beautiful Pokémon, Nicola," Trey said boredly, flicking a little imaginary dust off of his bright white suit. You just couldn't travel in an outfit like that. "I can't imagine why anyone would want such _coarse_ creatures." Lyra's Pokémon, well aware that they were being insulted, had by now paused in their training, and were grouping around Lyra, growling and glaring at the posh couple.

"Want me to show you why?" Lyra said calmly, nodding to Typhlosion. Nicola sighed and flipped her hair back.

"You can beat this annoying little girl, can't you, Trey?" she simpered. Lyra rolled her eyes. Honestly, couldn't the girl fight her own battles? Trey nodded, strolling to the edge of the banking and pulling a pokéball from his suit.

"Go on, Luxray," he sighed, like he was already bored with the whole proceedings.

"Rock Smash, Typhlosion," Lyra ordered. Typhlosion shot forward and smashed into the Luxray, knocking it right out. This Luxray wasn't young, but it wasn't a patch on Volkner's, and nothing on Typhlosion.

"Luxray!" Trey howled angrily as Luxray collapsed. "How _dare_ you?"

"Do I have to do _everything_ myself?" Nicola sighed, sauntering forward and drawing a pokéball from her handbag. "Lopunny, you can do it!"

"Lopunny, huh?" Lyra said, watching the glamorous rabbit preen. "It certainly is a pretty thing, but can it battle?"

"Just watch her fight, little girl," the Beauty snarled. "Lopunny, Dizzy Punch!"

"Thunderpunch, Typhlosion!" Lyra called. Typhlosion's fist crackled with electricity absorbed from its sparring with Ampharos, before meeting Lopunny's spinning punch and blasting right through it, throwing Lopunny off its feet with a cry.

"Lopunny!" Nicola screamed angrily. Lyra hugged Typhlosion.

"That was a _beautiful_ battle, Typhlosion," she couldn't resist snarking as the couple ran off, probably to the Sunyshore Pokémon Centre. "And with that, how 'bout we relax?"

-P-

"_I'm afraid those of us who have Pokémon aren't very strong. But you're one of the toughest Gym Leaders and a former Champion- you'll be fine on your own, won't you?_"

"_Cowards_," Blue thought, climbing carefully over some of the crumbling ruins, waving a torch beam around to examine the walls. As the frightened scientists had described, there were hollows in the walls in the shape of Unown. There were nothing _but_ hollows in the wall in the shape of Unown. Weird, since he'd been here before, his gym leader privileges granting him greater freedom to roam than the average tourist, and no place in the entire building had been devoid of carvings…

At the end of the hall, he was abruptly plunged into a darkness that his torch couldn't cut through. He flicked the beam off and released Arcanine, figuring that _something_ was causing this unnatural darkness, and that whatever it was, odds were good that it wouldn't like getting its ass burned. Few things did. Arcanine looked unusually frightened by the darkness, though…

"Flare Blitz," he ordered, causing Arcanine to roar and spit fireballs all over the room. They illuminated the blackness, but what Blue saw as a result…

"Holy…" he swore as Arcanine howled and shuddered, drawing closer to him. He turned and tried to run, but _it_ was there, _it_ was everywhere, chittering and howling…

His last coherent thought was to return Arcanine to his pokéball.

-P-

"Oh, how beautiful is _this_?" Lyra exclaimed, upon reaching the lakeside. The huge, clear blue lake was ringed by trees, no civilization in sight. It was starting to get dark, and with the dark it was getting chilly, making Lyra shiver. She'd been wearing her bikini under her clothes, allowing her to strip off and dive right into the sea on the beach, but she really wanted to set up camp and be somewhere a bit more private before stripping off the wet costume and putting on dry clothes. The people in one of the cabins by the beach had offered to let her stay with them overnight, but she'd wanted to cover more ground before turning in, having spent the entire day playing on the beach, and anyway they weirded her out slightly. Pikachu _everywhere_, to the extent that the kids were even dressed like Pikachu. Pikachu were sweet and all, but this lot was more than a little obsessed.

"Hey, is that an island on the lake?" Lyra murmured, squinting across the water. The lake was large but not too large to see across, though the poor light didn't help. There did seem to be some kind of boulder jutting out of the middle of the lake. She selected the surf ball. "Let's go find out, Gyarados!"

It wasn't a boulder; it was a small hill, on top of an island in the almost dead centre of the lake. There even appeared to be a cave hollowed into it. Lyra was uncertain about wandering into a random cave, but the temperature was dropping fast now that the sun had almost fully set and she needed to get into some warmer clothes; besides, she'd raised her Pokémon until their power levels had almost topped out. She severely doubted that there was anything in there that her team couldn't handle.

"Return, Gyarados," she murmured, returning Gyarados to his pokéball and releasing Typhlosion. "Typhlosion, can you flare up a little?" Typhlosion nodded and her flame mane instantly blazed up, lighting up the cave. It wasn't big, and there didn't even seem to be anything in it, but Lyra had had bad experiences with trickster ghosts before and intended to be careful by sleeping next to the entrance. She quickly changed into dry clothes and dug out her sleeping bag.

"Thanks, Typhlosion," she said, yawning. "Girafarig, can you sense anything?" she asked, releasing Girafarig into the cave. Girafarig looked around, her tail sniffing a bit, and stared up at the ceiling for a long, unsettling moment, before shaking her head. "Well, we can sleep in peace then. Return." Girafarig yawned as she vanished into the red light. "Let's get some sleep, eh, Typhlosion? Good night!"

"Phloooo," Typhlosion yawned as she lay down next to Lyra, allowing her trainer to snuggle up against her warm fur. No doubt about it, fire Pokémon made the _best_ heated pillows.

In the darkness, something watched them curiously.

-P-

"… He hasn't come back."

"Dammit. This is not good."

It had been twelve hours since Blue had gone down into the ruins. Some of the researchers thought they heard the howl of Arcanine at one point, but there was no sign of the Leader now. Just like Leaf and Harold had vanished without a trace.

"So at what point do we start answering the nonstop calls from Leaf's mom?" Another researcher asked. "And who's going to have the balls to do it? I mean, we all know about Leaf's big brother getting murdered three or four years ago. Who wants to tell this woman that her daughter's probably dead too?"

"Not dead, but as good as," somebody murmured. "There're stories of the Unown taking people before. We don't know where they go, but they've never been known to come back…"

"We'll have to report Blue's disappearance to the League, too," someone else pointed out morosely. "And to his grandfather. Professor Oak. That might just be career suicide, y'know, to be associated with a great personal tragedy for the greatest researchers in the world. So who wants that job?"

All of them avoided looking at the screen of Leaf's recovered laptop, sitting on a desk nearby and showing the last photo she took. It was just a garbled mess that nobody could discern what it was, but what was _really_ disconcerting- and, given the image's scrambled nature, almost impossible to determine- was that they could swear that it looked different every time they glanced at it.

"… Should we go in looking for them…?"

"What say we give it a couple more days, just in case?"

"Yeah, just in case."

Something outside watched the researchers bicker. Then it vanished to somewhere where it could safely discharge its anger, before coming back to find out just what was down there.

-P-

_I know, I'm updating irregularly, but since I'm writing the fic fairly quickly I'm publishing on a more rapid-fire basis than usual. Anyway, questions! (I'm still endeavouring to answer reviews personally, but this is a helpful way to get at what's confusing people and hopefully clear it up for others who didn't want to ask XD)_

_**I always have to wonder at the difference between game battles and battles on the show. Like how do you have a water Pokémon fight on dry land? Where does all that water come from?**__ I'm shooting for a middle ground between the battle styles of the games and anime; true to the mechanics of the game, but not bound by them; being a little creative, like you would be in reality, but not making up completely crazy crap like the anime (Lightning armour? Seriously?). Mostly, I'd say that really, you couldn't expect to use Pokémon like Goldeen or Finneon on land, but you could use ones like Poliwrath and Vaporeon. And Gyarados, as a hugeass sea serpent, fights wherever he likes XD I'd say that on land, they produce the water out of nowhere, rather like a fire-type produces fire, an electric-type produces electricity, a grass-type produces razor leaves, etc. It's one thing you shouldn't think too hard about; there's a reason Pokémon don't really exist ;)_

_**Do Pokémon bleed? **__They certainly seem to have tough hides, don't they, to take bites and scratches without blood? But they still feel pain, so I'd say resilient rather than tough. I think if blood was spilled, that would be putting the battle way beyond competition and any decent trainer would end the match then and there to rush to the Pokémon Centre. Or bring out another Pokémon to beat on any indecent trainers who don't want to stop when blood get spilled._

_**If there aren't animals, and only Pokémon, what are people eating?**__ Some normal fish and birds have appeared occasionally in the anime, but it still seems a little squicky whenever Ash and co. are tucking into burgers and the like, doesn't it? The games are just as bad and arguably worse, with G/S/C/HG/SS featuring those Rockets selling Slowpoke Tails as snacks, and D/P/Pt mentioning something about eating Pokémon and putting their bones into the lake to revive them… um… yeah… I'm an ethical vegetarian myself, which means that no matter what character I'm writing, I tend to automatically avoid writing them eating any meat… so yeah. My characters are all natural vegetarians and think nothing of it. Nobody's eating Grumpig or Tauros XD_

_**With all these loopholes, how did the writers expect to explain them?**__ I don't think they did. They figured their viewership was about seven years old, after all, so I guess they didn't expect the viewership to pick up on it. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that, unlike Ash, we actually grow up XDXD (I realize that most of these questions aren't really about the fic, but they're things I've wondered about myself XD)_

_**Is Red dead?**__ Yeah, he is, in this fic anyway. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but this semi-follows "_Silence In The Snow", _A oneshot I wrote a while back. I didn't write that with this in mind, but if you take SITS as deliberately ambiguous, since it was intended to be applicable to anyone's perspective, then it's a given that while Lyra had a similar experience, she didn't have precisely the same one. But she did fight Red on top of Mt Silver, and a few weeks later, she and Blue brought his body down. _

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	6. Chapter V

_**Chapter V**_

"Well, that was interesting," Lyra commented as she stepped into the gatehouse. "The Pokémon are pretty different to their native regions."

"You study Pokémon?" the gatekeeper asked, glancing up from his magazine. Since gatehouses never took tolls, nobody was ever entirely certain about why they were there, though Lyra suspected that they were keeping a secret tally of trainers passing through, in case somebody got eaten on a route.

"They're interesting, yeah," Lyra said, glancing through the notes she'd made about Sinnoh-native Pokémon. The gatekeeper smiled.

"If you train, then you might want to check out Maylene's gym," he said, nodding his head towards the door to Veilstone. "She's just a kid, but she's a fighter. Oh, and if your Pokémon are tired, you oughta check out the Massage Lady's place. Pokémon love her."

"A masseuse?" Lyra mused. She'd taken her Pokémon for massages with Daisy Oak before, and they loved them. It probably wouldn't hurt to check it out. And, of course, the gym. "Anything else interesting in Veilstone?"

"Well, there's the game corner, too," the gatekeeper said with a wink. "Nice place to have a little human fun, y'know? Oh, and there's the department store-" He cut off when Lyra screamed happily and shot through the door. Typhlosion rolled her eyes at the bemused guy before taking off after her trainer.

-P-

"Morning, Kris!" Gold said, yawning as he wandered into the canteen. "Wow, you were up early."

"Morning, Gold," Crystal called, waving him over to the table where she was nearly done with breakfast. "Good morning, Maz!"

"Azuuu!" Maz, Gold's Azumarill, cooed, leaping up onto the bench for a hug.

"So what's up?" Gold yawned, flopping down across from her.

"I'm always up this early, you slacker," Crystal snorted. "You're up unusually early for you, though."

"Eh, couldn't sleep with all those Whismur howling," Gold complained. "Hey, are you gonna eat that toast?"

"Get your own," Crystal said, snatching up her plate and sticking her tongue out at Gold. It was probably pretty immature, but they did say that habit was the strongest force in the universe. "This place has waffles, too."

"REALLY?" Gold yelled happily, shooting out of his seat and running over to the breakfast bar. Crystal sighed, already regretting alerting him to the presence of sugar. Still, his bright grins were always so infectious, and her pseudo-mood was long gone by the time he got back with a piled plate of waffles and an entire bottle of maple syrup.

"Here ya go, Maz," he said, putting down a blue bowl and putting a waffle next to the Pokémon food in it. "Want maple syrup?"

"I don't know how you metabolise the amount of sugar that you do, but it can't be good for Maz to try," Crystal said, watching Gold squirt a stream of golden liquid into the Azumarill's bowl, which the little blue Pokémon happily dug into.

"We need the energy to travel!" Gold said pompously. "Anyway, we've got a bit to travel today if we want to reach that Lavaridge place in decent time. We'll probably be a couple days travelling, even so."

"That'll just make the hot springs all the warmer and lovelier when we get there!" Crystal sang happily. Gold went a little red, and she couldn't blame him. _She _was warming up just thinking about those lovely springs!

"Whmre mu momn?" Gold said around a mouthful of waffle. Crystal rolled her eyes as she stood up.

"The mouth holds food or words, not both at once," Crystal said primly, repeating an old phrase of her mother's. "But if you were asking where I'm going, I'm going to a computer terminal to pick up a couple of items I stored. I'll see you in the front area… when you've _done_ chewing."

"Mmhmm!" Gold mumbled, waving at Crystal as she left. Unfortunately, the computer terminals in the main area were all in use, so she pulled out her Pokégear to check her calls and emails while she waited.

_3 new messages_

_First unread email_

_Hey, Kris! How's the Hoenn tour going? Any good gyms there? I heard they have beauty contests too! And how're things going with _Gold_, eh? Bet you two are having fun travelling ;) I'm on the road again myself. Have you heard of Mt Coronet in Sinnoh? They say it has weird effects on Pokémon evolution. I'm heading out to check it out, and I'm going to meet Blue there. I probably shouldn't be encouraging him to leave his gym so often, but hey, it's more fun to research together, y'know? But I'm going to hit up some gyms first, get more badges for my collection! Anyway, I'll let you know if we find out anything interesting, 'kay? Later!_

_~Lyra_

"_Wow, haven't heard a lot from Lyra since we started travelling in Hoenn,_" Crystal thought with a grin. "_Figures the only time she starts travelling again, she plans to travel with _Blue." Since none of the computers looked to be free any time soon, she started composing a reply

_The gyms here are interesting, but I swear they're not as tough as back home. Gold's been cleaning up on badges. I could, but I'm not really into gym battling these days. More fun chasing Pokémon, y'know ;) Sinnoh, huh? What's it like? I've heard it's a big place, and the leaders are pretty tough, but I suppose that's hardly a challenge for YOU. It's a long way, though- but Blue's coming all the way out there to meet you, huh? Lucky you ;) You two have fun, and let me find out if you know anything interesting, 'kay? Oh, and let me know if you find out anything about Pokémon too ;) See ya!_

_~Kris_

_Send_

"_Urgh, just get a Pokégear to check your emails!_" she thought in annoyance, looking at one of the computer users in annoyance. "_I don't get why those Pokénav things are so popular if they only take calls!_"

_Second unread email_

_Hi, Crystal, honey! How's Hoenn? Are you and Gold having fun? How are your Pokémon? I've been watching Pokémon contests on TV, and I know they're very popular in Hoenn. I think your Meganium is much prettier than most of the Pokémon I've seen in contests, though. I bet you could win! Oh, and I left a little surprise in your item box. Take care of yourself, honey!_

_~Mom_

"Your mom still bugging you to enter contests?" Gold asked, peering over her shoulder at the Pokégear screen. It was small text, sure, but did he really have to lean _that_ close? Not that Crystal had personal space issues or anything. It just made her feel all hot and bothered.

"Yeah, she's never been much for battle," Crystal sighed, scrolling past the "reply" option, figuring she'd reply _after_ she actually got on a computer and found out what her mom had gotten her. "The contests are pretty and all, but I don't think I want to subject my Pokémon to dealing with all of those prima donna 'mons, you know? Did you get an email from Lyra too, by the way?"

"Huh? Dunno," Gold said, sitting down next to her and flipping out his own Pokégear. Crystal turned back to the third message.

_Third Unread Email_

_Hi, Crystal! Y'know how you're in Hoenn right now? Guess what? Daddy's gonna try and be a gym leader in Hoenn! He's applied to the League and everything! We might be moving to Hoenn if he makes it! Can you tell me if there's any really good places in Hoenn? I wanna be able to tell mom what town we should move to. And it better be a place with cool Pokémon, so when I turn eleven, I can get a really awesome Pokémon to start with! See ya!_

_~Saphy_

"Huh, my little cousin might be _moving_ to Hoenn," Crystal said in surprise. "Small world. Hey, I'll tell her to move to Lavaridge so I have an excuse to visit the hot springs a lot!"

"Hey, Kris? A computer's open," Gold said, indicating a free terminal. "Check it out, Lyra's all the way in Sinnoh! That's gotta be cool." He started typing out his own reply to their mutual best friend's message. Crystal lingered for a moment, then bolted for the computer as another trainer started moving towards it.

-P-

"… That one, that one and that one, please," Lyra said, indicating three of the TMs displayed under the counter and opening her TM case. The assistant slotted them into place before her and counted out piles of the requisite coins.

"Well, you certainly got lucky today," he said, putting away the last of the coins. "Have fun?"

"Lots," Lyra giggled, closing her coin case and putting her TM case away. "Thank you!"

"Come and play again!" the assistant called as she picked up her shopping bags, emblazoned with the department store's logo, and left the casino.

"Okay, now," she hummed, checking the time on her Pokégear. 3.16. "That guy on the slots next to me said that Maylene should be back in the afternoon. Guess I'll go check the gym out. C'mon, Typhlosion!"

Typhlosion roared languidly as she was released from her pokéball, and then fell into step behind Lyra as she made for the fighting-style gym. Lyra reviewed what she'd heard of Maylene. Her gym's theme was fighting-types, and Maylene was a pretty wild girl herself, a kid who'd only come into the leadership recently. Still, Lyra well knew that being a kid didn't mean you were weak. Team Rocket had learned from her the folly of underestimating kids.

"Hello?" she called, sticking her head around the door of the gym.

"Hai-YAH!"

The gym was set up like a dojo, two pairs of human trainers fighting each other, while their Pokémon also sparred. Lyra counted five Machoke, a Machop, a Meditite, a Heracross and a Croagunk. The human pairs periodically broke apart, only to spar with Pokémon instead. In a large ring at the back of the room were three more pairs, though Lyra couldn't get a close look at them because all were moving quickly as they sparred.

"Hel-_loh_!" She bellowed over their fighting and yelling. Everybody paused to stare at her. She stared right back at them, hands on her hips. "Challenger for Maylene?"

"Hah!" One of the burly black belts laughed. The other three started laughing sycophantically. "A skinny city girl like you challenge the great Maylene? You couldn't even last out the ring with me!" Three of the Machoke stepped up to his side. Lyra just grinned, plucking Girafarig's pokéball from her belt as she returned Typhlosion.

"We'll see about that, shall we?" she said lightly.

-P-

It was dark. None of the Unown had yet returned to the walls. They were all still… wherever they'd gone.

The chamber at the end was pitch-black, and the air crackled strangely. There was a door here, a door that had been sealed for centuries until these idiots had dug into it. But what had scared both people and Pokémon alike so long ago? It seemed impossible to know; there were no runes or Unown carved into the walls of this chamber, just bizarre, messy pictures, some featuring warped, disturbing faces. He couldn't really understand them.

He really wished Red was still here. Red might have understood. Maybe the humans would understand, if they weren't afraid to come in here, but he couldn't ask them. And he didn't understand. After all this time, there was still so much he didn't understand!

Red was gone. That left him with only the option of waiting for Leaf to reappear, and if she didn't… well, maybe he'd wait forever. Or maybe he'd have to find somebody new to trust.

-P-

"Heracross!" The black belt yelled as his powerful battling bug was squashed in approximately three seconds by Typhlosion's flames. He rushed after his Pokémon, past the three other black belts who were bent over their own battered Pokémon. Lyra returned Typhlosion and crossed her arms.

"So where's the famous Maylene?" She asked, looking to the large ring at the back of the room. She hadn't really looked at it while battling the black belts, but now the three blurred sparring pairs had resolved themselves into five varied fighting Pokémon and a small, slight girl with pink hair and a few scattered bandages. "You, right? I heard you were a kid."

"Yeah, I'm just a kid," Maylene said in a surprisingly soft voice. "I don't really know what it means to be strong, or how to be a gym leader. But I take battling seriously, so I'll do my best!"

"I like you already," Lyra said with a grin. The girl wasn't half so obnoxious as Volkner, and indeed seemed a little nervous. Still, she was fierce, and Lyra was willing to bet that she really did put up a hell of a fight.

"Whenever you're ready, then," Maylene responded, gesturing to her Hitmontop, who leapt from its feet to the balancing point on top of its head, slowly spinning in an entrancing dance. Lyra selected Girafarig's pokéball. Those black belt's Machoke wouldn't have tired her out.

"Ready, set, GO!" She yelled, releasing the psychic Pokémon. "_Brains over brawn. I don't doubt this kid's good, but what can she do when she doesn't get a chance to touch her enemy…?_"

-P-

_**Are you going to continue Blue's POV now that he's been kidnapped?**__ Maybe, maybe not… wouldn't it be interesting to know where he is now?_

_**Does everybody in Johto and Kanto know each other? **__Well, not absolutely everybody, obviously, but Johto and Kanto are much more closely connected than Hoenn and Sinnoh are to either or each other. They share a League, after all, so if you treat the Leagues like governments, then they're two united nations. Plus, they have things like the Magnet Train and the League gate that physically connect the two countries closer than the others. Since they share a League, all the leaders probably know each other (Like Blue and Falkner), and most people in Johto will have heard of famous figures from Kanto and vice-versa. The same can't be said for Hoenn or Sinnoh (or, presumably, Isshu) because they only seem to be accessible via ferries. (Obviously they're not accessible to each other at all ingame, but all of them have port towns, so ferries it is. There don't really seem to be aeroplanes, but then again who needs them when you've got Pidgeot flying at Mach 2?)_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	7. Chapter VI

_**Chapter VI**_

"Girafarig, return!" Lyra yelled as her knees started to buckle shakily. "You did great." She'd taken down Hitmontop and Breloom in no time at all, but Maylene was clearly a quick study and had responded by sending out Medicham, a Pokémon famed for its incredible meditative focus, which negated Girafarig's attacks even further than its inherent psychic nature did, and also raised its attack to a level known as Pure Power, which pummelled Girafarig in a flurry of punches in the three great elements; fire, ice and lighting. Lyra was going to have to switch tack with this one, then figure out what to do about that Machamp and Lucario she could see still standing behind Maylene.

"_Girafarig was the only one to know Ghost or Dark moves, but too late for that now,_" she thought. "_Alright, then…_" she selected and released her pokéball. "Go for it, Noctowl!"

"Nooooc!" the bird Pokémon cooed, soaring above the battlefield, up near the rafters. Medicham could predict its opponent's moves, but Noctowl could see the future; this battle would happen before it did, so to speak.

"Thunderpunch it, Medicham!" Maylene commanded, but no matter how high Medicham leaped, it couldn't reach Noctowl.

"Noctowl, Fly!" Lyra commanded, directing Noctowl to soar downwards, smashing into Medicham with huge force. Medicham collapsed to the ground, partially due to its injury and partially due to its perfect focus being broken, disorienting it.

"That's enough, Medicham," Maylene said, darting forwards to pick up her Pokémon and carry it from the field. She didn't appear to use pokéballs, or shoes. "Machamp, swat that bird before it can get back up in the air!"

"Noctowl, Psychic, quickly!" Lyra commanded as Machamp shot forwards, all four fists aimed at Noctowl. Noctowl's eyes glowed as the huge, burly Pokémon stopped abruptly, and then was sent flying backwards into the wall with a resounding _crash_.

"Machamp!" Maylene yelled. She turned back to Lyra. "This is far from the end, right, Lucario?" The blue doglike Pokémon nodded and stepped forward calmly. Lyra regarded it carefully. She'd lucked out on type advantages before this, but Lucario took more than a type advantage to handle. Despite being officially classed as fighting/steel, they often had powerful psychic abilities, and if trained at length could form strong psychic bonds with their trainer. This one certainly had a strong bond with Maylene; it had been the one sparring with her when Lyra had entered the gym, and unlike the other four hadn't stood a ways behind Maylene but rather almost at her side. Besides, in Lyra's experience, leaders often saved their favourites for last. Which meant that Maylene wouldn't be giving Lucario any verbal commands, making its movements very difficult to predict or handle. It would be nearly impossible to launch a surprise attack; a well-trained Lucario could be so attuned to auras that it could fight blind.

"You don't see a Lucario that well-trained every day," she acknowledge aloud. "This is going to be pretty tough, right, Noctowl?" Noctowl hooted in response and started flying upwards. "We're gonna need a Heat Wave!"

Noctowl's eyes glowed as he began heating up his wings, but before the words had even finished leaving her mouth, Lucario had knocked over Noctowl with Extremespeed. Noctowl fell to the floor, and before he could get back up again, Lucario attacked it, again and again, incredibly fast, preventing it from getting airborne- and Noctowl couldn't do a thing if he couldn't use his wings.

"This is a lost cause, Noctowl! Return!" Lyra called. Lucario stilled to allow the jet of red light from the pokéball to claim its foe.

"That took us by surprise, calling a fire attack," Maylene commented. "Didn't know birds could do them. Still, it wasn't fast enough to get Lucario!"

"I think I'd better face your best with mine," Lyra said, choosing the oldest pokéball on her belt. "Go for it, Typhlosion!" Even as the light was resolving itself into her Pokémon, Lucario slapped its paws together, before slowly drawing them apart into a bone-shaped beam of green light. Bone Rush. This could make for serious damage for Typhlosion…

Typhlosion caught her eye, and Lyra recognized the expression. She nodded a little, and Typhlosion grinned. Lucario finished forming the bone and shot forwards, only to be engulfed by a huge blast of fire which shot first from Typhlosion, then from the floor around Lucario, making it impossible for it to escape.

"_LUCARIO!" _Maylene screamed, and there was real pain in it. Lyra winced. Shit. Their psychic connection.

"It's over, Typhlosion! Return!" she called, the fire fading with her Pokémon. Lucario slumped to the ground. "It's over," she repeated. "Sorry I had to end it like that, kid, but I didn't think it would take any less."

"Don't be sorry if you've fought to your fullest," Maylene said, kneeling by Lucario's side. "And thank you, really. It's good to know that I took your best." She grinned, and unhooked one of the badges scattered haphazardly over her tatty blue vest. It was an abstract little square made up of four little squares, but in a modern-art sort of way it almost resembled a fist. "Here. It's kind of ugly, but you've earned it. Erm… that came out wrong." They both giggled a little as Maylene pressed the badge into Lyra's hands. "Whatever. Here's the Cobble Badge."

"Ta," Lyra grinned, pinning it into place next to the badge she got from Volkner. Maylene's eyes went wide when she saw the eighteen-badge collection.

"Wow, you've beaten _everybody_!" she gaped. "Geez, and here I thought I'd teach _you_ a thing or two about fighting!"

"There's always something new to learn," Lyra said with a shrug and a smile. "As for what I'd like to learn next: do you think there are any hotels in this town that _aren't_ overrun by gamers? Even the Pokémon Centre's full."

"Hey, you could just hang here at the dojo for the night!" Maylene suggested brightly. "I bet we could learn something from you, eh, guys?"

"Of course, sensei," the four huge men said in unison, bowing before the diminutive little girl. At this point, Lyra broke down into full-fledged laughter.

-P-

"Pleh!" Crystal gasped, spitting out sand. "Okay, we're _not_ going that way again. Noway, nohow."

"It wasn't _that_ bad," Gold said, then pulled off one boot and started pouring out a stream of sand that seemed to vastly exceed the volume of the boot. "… Okay, maybe it was. Hmm?" A rock thumped out of his boot and into the pile of sand. "How the hell did that get in there?"

"Let's see," Crystal said, blowing at the rock and brushing it lightly to get all the sand off. "Looks kinda like something's claw…"

"Huh…" Gold said, dumping out the other boot. "Wonder if we should check that out with Lyra's pal Leaf. She's got a thing for ancient Pokémon, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," Crystal said, untying one of her ponytails. "Aaaagh! My hair! I'm going to need such a bath to untangle this mess!"

"Somehow, I don't think we're reaching Lavaridge tonight," said Gold, pulling his boots on and glancing around. "It's getting pretty dark. We spent way too long wandering around that stupid desert. Better set up camp out here."

"At least it's warm out here, I hate putting up tents in the dark," Crystal sighed, pulling out her sleeping bag. "Urgh, I'm going to be _so_ uncomfortable until I _get to those hot springs_!"

"It could be worse," Gold said, taking off his hat and pouring out another improbable stream of sand.

"How?" Crystal growled, spinning in a few circles to shake off some sand before pulling out a bag of sandwiches. "Geez, they're going to taste like sand, aren't they?"

"Ummm…" Gold scratched his head, dislodging more sand from his hair. "It could be raining."

"Stop tempting fate and go get some firewood."

-P-

_So cold. It was so, so cold. And it was dark, yet there was white, everywhere, impossible to see through. And too cold to move…_

"_Lyra!"_

"Lyra! Hey, Lyra?"

Lyra cracked an eye open, groaned, and them thumped her head off the dojo floor. "I did it again, didn't I?"

"Geez, _again_?" Maylene asked, looking concerned. "That was a pretty crazy nightmare you seemed to be having. You've had it before?"

"Yeah," Lyra said, sitting up, "a few times. I don't really wanna talk about it."

"Okay," Maylene said with a shrug. She seemed to have already been up for a while. "I dunno if you want our breakfast, it's pretty high on the carbs and protein, y'know?"

"A muffin'd do it for me," Lyra said, digging out her brush and attacking the bedhead before it could set in too badly.

"We've got blueberry ones," Maylene said, nodding towards the table where the four blackbelts were gorging themselves. "That okay?"

"Sounds great, thanks," Lyra agreed, checking her Pokégear. Geez, this girl was an earlier riser than Crystal!

"_Hey, speak of the devil,_" she thought, noticing an email from her friend. There was one from Gold too.

_Hey, Lyra! Kris here!_

_The gyms here are interesting, but I swear they're not as tough as back home. Gold's been cleaning up on badges. I could, but I'm not really into gym battling these days. More fun chasing Pokémon, y'know ;) Sinnoh, huh? What's it like? I've heard it's a big place, and the leaders are pretty tough, but I suppose that's hardly a challenge for YOU. It's a long way, though- but Blue's coming all the way out there to meet you, huh? Lucky you ;) You two have fun, and let me find out if you know anything interesting, 'kay? Oh, and let me know if you find out anything about Pokémon too ;) See ya!_

_~Kris_

"Oh, she is _so_ not getting away with that," Lyra grumbled. "But hey, I probably deserve that for the jab about Gold…"

"Who?" Maylene asked curiously as Lyra sat down next to her, grabbing a muffin as she read her Pokégear.

"Oh, some old friends of mine," Lyra said, figuring she'd reply later while walking. "We grew up together. They're in Hoenn just now."

"That's pretty cool," Maylene said, sucking down a protein shake. "They fight too?"

"Gold still takes on leaders, though mostly on a whim rather than as a vocation," Lyra said with a shrug, munching on her muffin. "Kris just likes tracking down and catching Pokémon. She's a bit wild sometimes."

"Sounds a bit like Maylene," one of the black belts commented, to general laughter. "She's always out in the wild, fighting and training. Don't think she's owned a pair of shoes since she was a baby, eh?"

"It's better to go barefoot," Maylene insisted. "It makes you tougher, it's more natural. Pokémon don't wear shoes!"

"We're not Pokémon," Lyra laughed. "We're people. Trainers. We have to try hard to be as tough as our Pokémon because we know we never will be."

"Amen, sensei," Maylene said, bowing her head. "Care to spar with us today?"

"That'd be fun, but I'd like to keep moving," Lyra said apologetically. "Thanks a ton for the bed and breakfast, though."

"Don't sweat it," Maylene said, flapping her hand. "Besides, your stories about Chuck were pretty cool. I've always wanted to go meet him, he's a master!"

"Well, if you ever do, drop by New Bark Town and say hi, 'kay?" Lyra said, finishing off her muffin. "Good luck with your leadering!"

"Thanks," Maylene said, raising her fist. Lyra bumped it, and then tried to avoid being slapped jovially on the back by the black belts as she left.

"Morning, Typhlosion," she said, releasing her partner in the bright morning air. It wasn't particularly warm; Sinnoh seemed generally colder than anywhere else Lyra'd been.

"Tyyyy," Typhlosion rumbled, sniffing the air and looking quizzically at Lyra.

"We're going west," Lyra said, looking at her map. "Route 215, then go north when we hit route 210…" she trailed off as she noticed the blinking email icon, remembering that she hadn't read Gold's message yet. She clicked it open as she walked with Typhlosion, since she could see where she was going well enough out of her peripheral vision, and anyway nobody ever ran into a girl who was walking next to six feet of burly bearlike Pokémon. On fire.

_How's tricks, Lyra? Heard you're out whipping the Sinnoh leaders! Good! If you're gonna be a champion, better be champion of everybody, right? I've gotten four Hoenn badges already, natch! Kris and I are off to Lavaridge. I wanna challenge their leader- I think she's a fire-type, no surprise- but Kris just wants to hang out at the hot springs. She keeps talking about getting to wear her new swimsuit. Um, I dunno how to ask this, but… do I take that as a hint, or what? We've all known each other forever, so you know what I mean, right? What do you think? I'll shut up now._

_~Gold_

"Whoa-HO!" Lyra hooted, trying to decide whether to laugh or sing. About time Gold owned up to his little crush! Not that there was anything little about it. "Can you believe it, Typhlosion? Gold's finally trying to do something with his crush on Kris! Kris can be a bit of a closed book sometimes, but I know Gold's the most important guy in her life, y'know?" Typhlosion nodded, having known the three of them for five years and being as familiar as Lyra with their relationships. She growled something. Lyra shrugged. "Well, Kris has never been one for inhibitions, y'know? The swimsuit talk might just be her genuinely wanting to try the swimsuit." She frowned. "Then again, she's never been _that_ big on clothes… think it's genuine flirting?" Typhlosion nodded. "Okay, then. Guess I owe Gold a reply, huh?" Typhlosion moved a little in front of her as she became lost in thoughts of what to say to Gold. Typhlosion figured her trainer was going to need a bit of guidance if she was going to get absorbed in that Pokégear. Lyra was a good trainer, but she could get pretty absentminded…

-P-

"Huh, check it out. We must've missed it in the dark."

"What is it?"

"The route 112 sign. Geez, we were only an hour or so from Lavaridge! There's no need to go through the desert at all!"

"… Gold, we've known each other since we were babies, so please don't take any undue offence when I tell you that I'm seriously considering murdering you and leaving your corpse to be eaten by packs of Poochyena right now."

-P-

_No, I'm not releasing these on anything resembling a schedule… just whenever I feel like it XD I've gotten this whole thing written much faster than any serial fic I've written before… something about Pokémon just inspires me! _

_**Is Crystal's mom still taking her money and buying stuff for her?**__ Lyra's mom is, so yeah, Crystal's probably is too XD At least she's not buying stupid berries… that's always annoying me about the remakes. Instead of the epic Snorlax doll, the best you can get is a Moon Stone. Which are nice and all, but who didn't find the Snorlax doll totally awesome? XD_

_**Is Crystal's cousin Sapphire the girl from Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald?**__ Yep. Which also puts the events of those games some time in the future. When Diamond, Pearl and Platinum happened… dunno XDXD_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	8. Chapter VII

_**Chapter VII**_

What was this place? Every time he tried to get a handle on it, it changed out of spite. Of course, that was when he had a handle on who _he_ was, or the fact that he even existed. The concept got pretty fuzzy at times.

Time. How much of that had there been? Just a moment ago, he'd been somewhere that made sense. But he'd been here forever, and would be here forever. Always just here. Wherever the hell here was. _Whatever_ the hell here was.

The voice didn't help.

_Strong. More strong. More enough. Very well. Choose. This choose._

What the hell was it? And why did it hurt so much to hear, or feel, or however it arrived? Who or what was saying it? What the hell were they trying to say? They weren't doing the whole speech thing so well, but then, neither was he at the moment, not even inside his own head.

Wherever _that_ was.

-P-

"It is _not_ getting dark already," Lyra complained, looking up at the soft, glorious spectrum of light spreading across the sky, with the extremely dark blue section overtaking all others, and the black section overtaking that. "Just great. I really hoped I'd be able to clear this today, but I wasn't counting on that damn grass!" Typhlosion just sneezed grass out of her nose, though most of it just instantly incinerated.

The grass along route 210 really was outright ridiculous. It was taller than Lyra, taller than _Typhlosion_, and a couple of Ranchers had been very pointed about warning her that she was _not_ allowed to burn the damn stuff down.

"That's it, campout time," Lyra eventually sighed. Picking a comfortable-looking tree- and _empty_-looking, she knew better than to sleep under anything that was liable to drop Pineco or Spinarak on her head- she dug out her sleeping bag, a bag of noodles and a pot. Pouring out a water bottle into the pot, she motioned to Typhlosion. "Can you help me boil this?" Typhlosion whistled out a small flame around the pot, boiling the noodles in no time. She tipped them into the drainer, set over a second pot. She set it down for a moment to give it time to drain out fully- she _hated_ sodden noodles- and dug out the bag of curry noodles. Breeders often fed their Pokémon their own versions of standard Pokémon food, but Lyra had found Typhlosion was one of those Pokémon who just didn't find brown lumps all that appetizing for some reason. Curry noodles were her favourite thing, so once Lyra had drained out all the water into a second pot, she set the curry noodles in that and held it up for Typhlosion to boil. She always had to do Typhlosion's noodles second; the fire-type might love spicy stuff, but Lyra hated it, and she didn't carry enough water at once for two pots. She hadn't managed to land a camping spot near any running water either, which meant that, aside from not being able to refill her bottle, she wouldn't be able to let Gyarados out for long either. Unlike many water Pokémon, Gyarados were both tough and large enough to survive outside of water, but they weren't ultimately at their most comfortable on dry land.

"Dinnertime, guys!" she said, releasing her Pokémon and picking out more dinner-size bags of food. The others weren't as picky about their food as Typhlosion, probably because Lyra had always fed them on Pokémon food. With Typhlosion, she'd first fed her some curry noodles that Lyra'd bought by mistake when buying her own dinner, having only realized out in the wild that she'd completely forgotten to buy any Pokémon food for her new friend. Cyndaquil had taken to the spicy food and subsequently refused to eat anything else, but the others were happy with bowls of Pokémon food, and were quick to chow down once Lyra had poured out their own mixes. Aside from Gyarados, whose mouth was too big for him to eat from a bowl smaller than a child's inflatable swimming pool, and mostly just put his head down for Lyra to throw food into.

"Hopefully, we'll hit Celestic Town by the end of tomorrow," she told them. "That pamphlet Nurse Joy gave me doesn't have any leaders listed in Celestic Town, but you never know. Then after that we have to go through Mt Coronet to get to Eterna City, so I might take some of the Pokémon I want to investigate and send you guys to Mt Silver. Sorry about that, but I'll pick you guys up again in Eterna, okay?"

"Faaa gira," Girafarig crooned, nuzzling Lyra with her nose. Lyra could feel the reassurance. _It's fine. Good luck_! The others growled, hooted or otherwise voiced their assent. Then Girafarig winked, and for a brief moment, an image of Blue was planted in Lyra's mind. She blushed and gasped in surprise, before nudging Girafarig's food bowl with her toe in irritation.

"Not funny," she grumbled as her Pokémon sniggered, having probably been shown the psychic image by Girafarig as well. "Stay out of my head. Damn psychics." Girafarig giggled again, licking her ear consolingly.

-P-

"Oh, this feels _so_ good!" Crystal sang happily, sinking down into the hot water. Gold tried very hard to look like he _hadn't_ been staring at what was still classed as a one-piece ice blue swimsuit only due to a strip of cloth over the belly. What had Lyra told him about appropriate compliments?

"Nice suit," he said, a little awkwardly, adding on impulse, "it goes great with your hair." He was rewarded with a grin from Crystal, who then grimaced as she untied her hair and dropped it into the water.

"It'll look even better when I've gotten all the sand out of it," she complained rather pointedly, leaning over to get as much of her hair as possible into the hot water. Gold winced and thumped his head off the rock edge of the pool a couple of times.

"Sorry," he apologized for what felt like the billionth time. "I never saw the sign for Lavaridge."

"Well, at least we got that cool fossil out of it," Crystal said with a shrug, leaning her head to the other side to dunk more hair. It was actually visibly losing a brown sheen. "Know what it is yet?"

"I took a photo and sent it to Lyra to forward to Leaf," he said, "but I haven't heard back yet." Crystal slumped a little; disappointment not to hear back about the fossil?

"Lyra knows some cool people," Crystal said brightly. There was something odd about it that Gold couldn't quite put his finger on. "Well, she would. She's really special. Like you." She sounded increasingly despondent.

"So're you," Gold tried to encourage her. "Everybody's special…"

"That's just what people say to cheer up people who aren't," Crystal said, now discernibly upset. "I _know_ I'm not as special as you two, okay? I'm not special. I'm not "chosen". I'm just…"

"Crystal…" Gold said in surprise, suddenly twigging. "Why're you saying that like it's a _bad_ thing? Kris… that's exactly _why_ you kick so much ass!"

"Excuse me?" Crystal said bemusedly, frowning. Gold rolled his eyes.

"Lyra and I both lucked into our first Pokémon," he explained. "My dad's a freakin' professor, it was kind of a given that I'd get a free shot at some cool Pokémon. And Lyra got volunteered by her mom into an errand that happened to require that she have a Pokémon, and stuff just kind of bonded them. But you made a real effort to actually go over to Dad's and befriend Chikorita on your own. You worked at it, at everything you've ever done. Even, hell, _especially_ when you caught those Dogs. Lyra and I picked up some shiny feathers and got taken to see some cool Pokémon. You hauled ass to track down _three_ cool Pokémon, and you chased 'em across two continents until you got 'em. You've never relied on luck or skill or anybody's help. You've only ever relied on _you_, and, frankly, you're awesome, Kris. You chose, and that makes you _way_ more awesome than anyone who was chosen." Silence fell as Crystal just stared at him, and he felt himself going red. "Anyway, that's what I think," he mumbled, ducking his chin under the water.

"Gold…" she said softly, "Thanks. I… thank you." Then she went a little red herself and started twiddling a strand of damp blue hair, now visibly free of sand. "So… you think I'm more awesome than Lyra?"

"Hell yeah!" Gold blurted out. "I mean, she's a great pal and props to her for ranking first in, like, the world, but she's got nothing on you, y'know?" He paused, aware that he was babbling. "I mean… she's not more important to me than you or anything. I mean you're both my best friends, but, I mean, um…"

"It was _me_ you asked to come check out Hoenn with you," Crystal said quietly, but still smiling, a little nervously.

"Well, yeah," Gold agreed, grinning a little nervously himself. Both of them were probably glad that the hot springs gave them an excuse to be a little flushed.

-P-

"They've been gone for _four days_ and you only inform us _now_?" Professor Oak cried indignantly. The lesser researchers cowered, trying not to look at where Daisy Oak was crying with her arms around Mrs Ketchum, who shed no tears; she seemed to be at a level of grief far beyond tears. First her husband, a long time ago, then her son, now her daughter…

"A-a mention about Leaf and Harry went out on the Johto radio at first, in case she'd been attacked near the Ruins or something and somebody knew," one of the younger guys plucked up to say. "But nobody knew anything, then Blue turned up… said he got Johto Radio and he'd heard about Leaf, and wanted to go have a look for himself. We… we were all too scared to go with him, after the strange things that've been happening in the ruins… And we thought, he's the strongest Leader in Kanto, a League Champion, surely there would be no help non-trainers like us could give him…"

"So you let him go in alone," Daisy sniffed. "Do you even _know_ what's happened to them?"

"We… we think the Unown have taken them," one of the others suggested. "There are stories, old rumours, that the Unown would carry people off to other dimensions… it's quite common around here for parents to tell their children that if they're bad, the Unown would take them away. But none of us has seen a live Unown before… we didn't realize that the ones in the walls were… they still haven't reappeared…"

"Have the Unown ever brought them back?" Mrs Ketchum asked. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but they all fell silent to it.

"I… I don't know…" the man said, shamefaced. An older woman fiddled with her glasses nervously.

"It varies from legend to legend," she explained. "Some say that those taken by the Unown were trapped forever in another dimension. Some say that the people were returned almost immediately, or even _before_ they were taken. Some say that they were trapped in the other world for centuries before they returned, like Urashima Taro. Of course, we have no way of knowing how many, if any, of these legends are true."

"Let me see your research," Professor Oak said, sitting down at a nearby computer. "Where were they when they were abducted?"

"They were heading down a corridor we hadn't investigated before," the youngest researcher explained. "There are four hidden passageways, three of which we'd already opened; I think Leaf's friend Lyra opened one, I don't know how. Leaf figured out that the fourth needed Flash by deciphering the Unown text. It opened into a smaller temple chamber, like the other three, but at the same time a larger passage appeared… Leaf and Harry were the first ones to go down it. We don't know what's at the end. The only three people to have gone all the way down haven't come back… we found Leaf's laptop only halfway down…"

Daisy began tuning out her grandfather's detailed discussion with the other researchers, just rocking slightly and rubbing Mrs Ketchum's back soothingly. There wasn't any real comfort she could give her; what on earth could she say?

"Leaf," she kept whimpering at regular intervals. "Leaf…"

_She is still alive. Wherever she is, she is not dead yet._

Daisy jerked her head up. "Did you hear that?" she asked. Her grandfather and the researchers didn't hear her, but Mrs Ketchum was staring out of the window.

"Who was that?" she croaked, saying the first thing aside from her daughter's name for some time.

"I… don't know…" Daisy said with a frown. She wiped her eyes, her face setting into determination. "But they sounded like they knew what they were talking about. And I believe them. We have to believe them. Leaf is alright. I'm sure of it. After all, she's no ordinary trainer… and neither is Blue."

She couldn't help wondering why the voice hadn't mentioned Blue, however.

-P-

"Mom, now is _not_ the time," Crystal said quickly, trying to answer her phone without taking her eyes off the battlefield. Az blasted a powerful Hydro Pump at Camerupt, putting the score at 3-0 to Gold. Flannery was an extremely spunky leader not much older than Gold and Crystal, but she wasn't quite in the same class as Blaine, whom Gold, Crystal and Lyra had all fought in his cave over three years ago. Still, she didn't seem too disheartened by the setback, even though it left her with only one Pokémon as she released Torkoal.

Gold had insisted on fighting the leader before they turned in, which gave them an excuse to leave the hot springs not long after they'd had that illuminating but kind of embarrassing conversation. Still, she'd been grinning like a fool ever since. Gold liked _her_, not Lyra! And, she was rather upset to realize, she was thinking more kindly of Lyra now that she knew that. Best friend since forever or not, she'd been having slightly- okay, _really_- bitchy thoughts at times about Lyra, ever since she'd started really crushing on Gold. Released by the knowledge that Gold was crushing right back, she really wanted to talk to her best girlfriend. Nevertheless, Sinnoh was a couple of hours ahead of Hoenn, which meant Lyra was probably asleep already. In Johto, however, it was still late afternoon.

"_Kris, honey, I just need to let you know_," her mom said equally quickly, not intending to be cut off. "_My brother's coming over the day after tomorrow with Wilma and Saphy, and I'd really like you to be home when they come over. Saphy wants to see you, and they want to know about Hoenn…_"

"The day after _tomorrow_?" Crystal exclaimed. Gold glanced at her questioningly for a moment before turning back to the battle. From the beating Flannery was getting, it was probably lucky for her that Crystal was more interested these days in wild Pokémon than she was in battling trained ones. "Mom! Gold and I've only covered like half of Hoenn! I wanted to see the rest before coming home!"

"_Hoenn's not going anywhere, honey,_" her mom said placatingly.

"But the Ever Grande League is," Crystal said through gritted teeth. "Gold's gotta get all of the badges within the next month to be able to battle them the next time they meet, and…" _I really wanted to watch him do that…_

"_You only need to come home for a little while, Crystal. You'll be able to meet up with Gold before he goes to Ever Grande._"

Crap. She'd used Crystal's full name, instead of calling her Kris. In other words, Mom Had Spoken and the visit was set in stone. Great timing. "… Fine, mom. I might be a day late, depending on ferry times."

"_That's just fine, honey, Norman and his family'll be here a few days. Saphy will be so happy to see you! Alright, call me when you're getting it! Love you, Krissy!"_

"Love you too, mom," Crystal sighed, hanging up at the same moment Torkoal hit the dirt.

Great, just great. She and Gold were pretty much official, and at _that moment_ she got dragged back to Johto. And either her mom or Saphy would probably manage to drag this development out of Crystal while she was home, too, and as relaxed as her mom sometimes was, Crystal wasn't too sure how well any mom would deal with the idea of her adolescent daughter travelling long-term with an adolescent male companion, childhood friend or no.

Just great.

"Check it out, Kris!" Gold said cheerily, brandishing a flamelike badge. Then he clocked her expression. "Hey, what's up?"

Crystal sighed heavily. Juuuuuust _great_.

-P-

_To all American and European readers: Did you download your 10__th__ Anniversary Mew from the wifi event today? I'm sooo happy _

_By the way, for those who don't know, Urashima Taro is the star of a popular Japanese fairy tale. He was a fisherman who caught a turtle in his net and released it, only for it to reveal itself to be the turtle princess, who was grateful for his kindness and took him to her underwater kingdom, where she took on the form of a beautiful woman. Taro spent three days there living in the greatest luxury, but decided to go home to see his parents. The princess begged him not to go, but he insisted, so she gave him a box to take with him and made him promise never to open it. When the man got to the surface, nobody knew who he was or who his parents were; when he told people his name, they said that three hundred years before, a fisherman by that name had vanished into the sea. A day in the underwater kingdom was a hundred years on land. Despondent, Taro opened the box the princess had given him, at which point he crumbled into dust. The box had contained his lost years, and aged him three hundred years all at once._

_Anyway, the implication here is that some people are taken to another dimension for what seems like a short time to them but is much longer in the world. (This story's so famous in Japan that it's commonly referenced in manga and anime, but since Pokémon's a worldwide phenomenon you're less likely to have come across the story.)_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	9. Chapter VIII

_**Chapter VIII**_

"… The Dragon Clan's really that old?" Silver said in surprise. The old master nodded. Clair and Lance were both unsurprised; they were true members of the clan, they'd probably heard the story before. That he was allowed to know the story too filled Silver with an unaccustomed feeling of pride; not arrogant pride, but a genuine feeling of worth. He was an honorary member of the dragon clan, but now they really felt like his clan, his family.

"And I tell you this story, Silver," the old master continued, "because I have a task for you. You have heard of these poor children going missing in the Ruins?"

"Yes," Silver said with a nod. "Are we to…?"

"We'd _love_ to," Clair said irritably, "but the Master won't let us…"

"We must not break our vow, Clair," the master reprimanded her. "But all three of you, the three strongest children of the dragon clan, have tasks. Clair, you must go to Fuschia City. The ancient ninja clans of that city share some of our secrets, they will be able to direct you. Lance, to Cinnabar. And Silver…" the old man bowed his head. "I am afraid I must exploit you for a technicality, my dear boy. I had hoped to formally induct you to the clan- after all, your Dragonair evolved, a mighty task for one not born of the clan- but if you are not yet formally a member of the clan, you can still go to the Ruins. When this task is complete, I will formally induct you, but first, you must be the one to visit the Ruins and investigate."

"I understand, Master," Silver said, bowing his head. Lance and Clair also bowed, accepting their tasks. Silver wasn't really bothered about the delay to his formal induction to the clan; it was certain to happen, and that was good enough for him.

"Congratulations, Silver," Lance said as they walked out of the shrine, Clair calling her Gyarados for the three of them to cross the water on. "Grandfather really plans to formally adopt you into the clan."

"That is actually pretty impressive," Clair acknowledged. "You've only been training here five years. Some trainers train here for way longer and never get acknowledged like this. I mean, you were even selected alongside us for what I hope you realize is one of the most important missions that the clan has ever had."

"Oh, I know," Silver said, a little testy after Clair's condescending tone. "And I'm grateful. Really."

"Good luck, Clair… brother," Lance said with a slight smile at Silver. Silver returned it slightly, a smile not being his most common expression. Lance stepped from Gyarados' back and out of the cave, flying off straight away on his Dragonite.

"Look after yourself, kid," Clair said, releasing her own Dragonite and flying off. Following suit, Silver selected his own Dragonite and headed south-west. The sun was just rising; when you trained in a dark underground cave, your sense of time could get a little shifted. As was his habit, he scanned the ground below as he flew, not that he really expected to see what- or who- he was looking for.

"_Stop it, you moron,_" he mentally chastised himself. "_You're getting inducted into the dragon clan soon! You've _got_ a family now! So who cares about _him?"

He liked the feeling of being accepted, finally. But it still couldn't completely erase the feelings of being unwanted. The feelings of being rejected.

Of being a failure.

"…_I'm afraid you'll have to go to someone else for your asskicking for a while…_"

"_Okay, so she beats me when we fight,_" he grumbled. "_Doesn't give her any right to be such a snob. I'm practically friends with Gold and Crystal now, weird as it is to say that, so why's she have to be so stuck-up? I might've been an asshole, but she's just as bad. What's her _problem?" He caught sight of Sprout Tower, and pushed Lyra from his mind. "_Who cares. I've got a job to do for my clan. I've got a family now, and they come first._"

-P-

"Oh, wow," Lyra murmured, examining the intricate carvings in the light of Typhlosion's flame mane. There was a lamp in the middle of the floor, but its light wasn't that strong; digging into the walls to put in torches or lamps would disrupt the murals, and Lyra could fully understand why nobody would dare do that. She pulled out her Pokégear and started snapping pictures of the carvings. They were beautiful, but not very clear, since Lyra wasn't too up on ancient mythology; Leaf Ketchum was the girl to go to about stuff like that, and since Lyra wasn't sure if she'd ever gone further than Johto, she might appreciate a few photos of Sinnoh's myths.

"Beautiful carvings, aren't they? That's the Sinnoh Trio."

Lyra's heart did a backflip in surprise at the deep, strong female voice that echoed across the chamber. She glanced around quickly, but even with her eyes accustomed to the gloom, it took her a second look to discern the woman; she was dressed all in black, only the sheen of her long, platinum-blonde hair giving her away.

"Oh, wow," she gasped, putting a hand theatrically to her chest. "You gave me a fright. Place like this, you'd believe that maybe one of the Legendary Pokémon would turn up…"

"Perhaps," the woman chuckled. "This is the Cave Of Origin. This town was the first human settlement in Sinnoh, and this is where our earliest legends are recorded." She strode over to Lyra and offered a hand, which Lyra shook. "I am Cynthia. Pleasure to meet you. I can tell just from looking at your Typhlosion that you are a powerful trainer."

"I'm Lyra," Lyra introduced herself, and then gestured to the line of badges along her bag strap. "Top of the Indigo League, so now I'm having a go at the Sinnoh League." She tipped her head a little, examining the woman, who unlike most people didn't shy away from Typhlosion. She was an intimidating creature, right enough, six feet and a hundred and ninety pounds of flaming bear, but Cynthia walked right up to her like she was a cuddly little Teddiursa, and even patted her paw in a friendly fashion. "Are you a trainer too? You must be good, you're certainly used to powerful Pokémon…"

Cynthia laughed. "You said you were a foreigner. I'm rather like you, child. I am the official Champion of the Sinnoh League."

"Oh!" Lyra gasped in surprise, and then grinned. "So you're my ultimate challenge here!"

Cynthia smiled back, looking up at Typhlosion. "I look forward to that confrontation. But still, the League does not meet again for some time, and so I'm home, playing tourist information. I'm afraid I can't help it, I so love telling the story in these caves."

"You know it well, huh?" Lyra asked, looking over the carved images. "I'm afraid I can't really figure out what it's about. So forgive me for being a stupid foreigner, but who or what are the Sinnoh Trio?"

"Interestingly enough, there are two," Cynthia said, looking over the image herself. "These three are most commonly thought to be the Lake Spirits, Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie. They're said to live at Lake Valour, Lake Verity and Lake Acuity."

"I was camping at Lake Valour the other night," Lyra commented thoughtfully. "In a cave in the middle of the lake. I felt like I was being watched, but Girafarig didn't sense any Pokémon…"

"It wouldn't tell you if it did," Cynthia said smoothly. "Azelf is said to live there, and it is said that Azelf is the creature who gave people willpower. It can control the wills of others. There are many who have reported feeling odd in that cave, but can't put their fingers on why; Azelf, I suspect, is subtly controlling their will to prevent them from finding it. It's not malicious, so don't worry about it."

"Makes sense," Lyra agreed, touching Girafarig's pokéball a little nervously. She'd trained her Pokémon well and knew just how strong they were; the thought of someone else controlling them, to whatever extent, was more than a little jarring. "So what are they?"

"Fairylike creatures who each gave a different gift to humanity, or so it's said," Cynthia explained. "Will, emotion and intelligence. But I have another theory." She walked right up to the wall, tracing her fingers around the three circles. "There is a lesser-known trio that these may be, though they are not, in their nature, exclusively Sinnoh creatures. Dialga, Palkia and Giratina; it could also be these, though the lack of markings makes it hard to be sure."

"Dialga, Palkia and Giratina… what are they?" Lyra asked, examining the markings. Now that she looked closely, they seemed to be ringing another figure, though what _that_ was she couldn't say.

"The Gods of Time, Space and the world alongside our own," Cynthia said softly. "Dialga created time; Palkia controls and creates space; Giratina is master of the parallel dimension that exists alongside our own, just on the other side of the mirror. I sometimes wonder if this isn't the trio depicted here."

"Wow," Lyra breathed. Then she tapped the figure in the centre. "Any idea who or what that is?"

"A creature more powerful that Dialga, Palkia or Giratina," Cynthia replied. "But for what that is… I can't even imagine. Whatever created creatures like those must be powerful beyond imagination…"

"I can bet," Lyra mused, taking a closeup photo of the section of the carving depicting the three figures ringing the fourth, incredibly powerful one. "I have a friend who's pretty knowledgeable about old and legendary Pokémon. I'll send these to her, see what she makes of them." She didn't add that she was very intimately knowledgeable herself about one or two Legendaries; fellow Champion or not, Lyra never felt comfortable with telling people what she'd captured. Partially it was the fear of thieves, and partially it was the fear of publicity.

"I'd be interested to know if your friend can come up with anything," Cynthia mused. "In any case, are you staying overnight in Celestic Town?"

"Yeah, I was going to bunk out in the Pokémon Centre," Lyra said with a shrug. "Tomorrow I'm going through Mt Coronet to Eterna City."

"Why not stay the night with my grandparents and myself?" Cynthia offered. "I'd enjoy a chance to get to know my opposite number from the Indigo League…"

"Well, officially, that's Lance, since I didn't feel like hanging around the Indigo Plateau to head up the Elite Four," Lyra laughed, following Cynthia out of the cave, to where it was nearly as dark outside. "So, what's your specialty?"

"Fishing for information?" Cynthia said with a deep laugh. "But I'm afraid I don't specialize. Any trainer wishing to defeat me needs more than a type advantage."

Lyra grinned. "You remind me of my friend Blue," she laughed. She liked Cynthia already.

-P-

"I guess I'll head East," Gold said, glancing over his Pokégear map as they walked through Mauville. "Aim for Fortree City."

"I should be able to make it to Slateport by this evening," Crystal said, unfolding her bicycle. She did it slowly, stretching out the moment. "I'm sorry, Gold…"

"Don't worry about it," he insisted. "I know what your mom's like. But hey, call me the second you get back to Hoenn, alright?" He squeezed her hand. "I'll show ya my shiny new badges and brag about the matches you didn't see."

Crystal laughed a little and squeezed back. "I'll try to be back as soon as possible. Good luck." Before she could change her mind about it, she leaned over and kissed him, which surprised but far from annoyed him. He was grinning like the fool he was when they broke apart.

"That oughta be luck enough to last me until you get back," he commented. "I'll see ya soon, Kris!"

"See you, Gold!" Crystal called as she got on her bike and started pedalling south, knowing that if she cut down the Cycling Road she'd hit Slateport in time to get an overnight ferry. The sooner she got home, the sooner her mom was likely to let her head out and come back.

She briefly wondered if it would be too conspicuous to use Suicune to just run across the sea, faster than the ferry.

-P-

It was dark, and very late, but Silver still had to be careful sneaking past the research centre because a light was still going in one of the labs, where he could see Professor Oak still at a computer, where images of Unown were visible. He was bent on finding his grandson. Silver had never taken the Kanto League- two crushing defeats in a row from Lyra and Gold before he took the Indigo League had made him abandon that and begin training in the Dragon's Den- so he'd never fought Blue Oak, hadn't even met the guy, but he was reputed as the toughest leader in the Indigo League and most trainers had heard of him. His Pokémon were said to be nigh-unbeatable.

But then again, the strongest Pokémon in the world wouldn't help you against what was down there.

He hadn't been able to get near the place earlier in the day- police tape was everywhere, preventing any nosy parkers from going down to the Ruins, and though he'd gone straight now, police still made Silver uncomfortable- but getting around in the dark was another matter. Sneasel led him easily through the pitch black, and Gengar floated at his side too; if there was any weird crap in the Ruins, Gengar would be the first to know.

As it was, the ghost Pokémon started acting up before he'd even gotten into the ruins. Silver glanced at where Gengar was pointing nervously. "Something's there?" he asked softly, staring at a point in the shadows. He couldn't see a thing, but maybe that meant… "Sneasel, Shadow Claw." Sneasel leapt over to where Gengar directed, slashing out with black-wreathed claws, and the air shimmered where he slashed through a psychic shield. Something pale shot out from under the destroyed shield, into the sky.

"_What the hell was that?_" Silver wondered. "_That's not like any Pokémon I've ever seen… was that…?_" he glanced at Gengar and Sneasel. "_No, it wasn't… _that._ The master said that all Pokémon hate that thing… but whatever it was that just flew away, only Gengar was unsettled by it. Sneasel didn't hesitate at all. And with that shield, that makes it a psychic Pokémon. Not a psychic Pokémon I've ever seen before, though… what was it doing here?_" he looked around at the otherwise silent Ruins. "_All the other wild Pokémon have left…_"

The inside of the Ruins was silent as well, and more unsettlingly, the Unown were gone from the walls. Silver had brilliant night vision, but he still had to make Gengar glow to light the cave, and that only confirmed his suspicions; the Unown really were gone.

"_Silver? Lance? You guys there?_"

"Hey, Clair," Silver said softly into his Pokégear. "What's up?"

"_Something happened, Clair?_" Lance's voice asked. "_What's that weird noise?_"

"Probably coming from my end, I'm in the Ruins," Silver responded. "People often hear weird things on the radio in here. So what's up?"

"_One of those people who vanished was a scientist, right?_"

"_Yes. Why?_"

"_Found him. He was just lying in the entry hall to the Pal Park gibbering. I raised the alarm and they're taking him to the Saffron City Hospital just now, but he's not in good shape. Hasn't said a coherent word yet. Like the master said, his mind's snapped like a twig._"

"_Clair,_" Lance said, a little remonstrating. "_First order of business; the Pal Park needs to close indefinitely. Talk to Janine about it, but this is a League order, got it? Silver, have you found anything?_"

"Not yet," Silver responded. "At least, not any of the missing people, but I did see something odd. There was a psychic Pokémon hiding around the entrance to the cave. I don't know what it was, I only got a glimpse but it's not something I've ever seen before. What's even odder is that all of the wild Pokémon have left the Ruins already, so what on earth was that thing doing here?"

"_Good question, but- oh my,_" Lance suddenly said in surprise.

"_Lance? What's going on?_"

"_Sssh, Sshh, Dragonite, calm down… it's here,_" he said. "_I'll call back in a few minutes. Something's here…_" he cut off at the same moment Clair hung up. Silver put his Pokégear away and headed deeper into the Ruins. He didn't get far, however, before both Gengar and Sneasel froze, shivering violently.

"What's wrong?" Silver asked. Neither of them moved. They were _terrified_.

Then Silver heard the distant echo of footsteps, drawing closer.

"Return," he commanded, withdrawing both Pokémon and running back a little, hiding down a semi-collapsed offshoot passage. He wanted to get a good look at whatever was coming before it got too close.

He first managed to discern a human form in the darkness; then, as it drew closer, Silver could make out some features. Dark coat, brown trousers, spiky brown hair…

"_A person? What…?_" Silver thought, before stepping out into the path of the figure. "Hello…?"

Then he made eye contact, and everything else slipped away. How could he have been so _stupid_? The Pokémon had been so frightened…

The last thing he heard before he passed out was the chattering of the Unown.

-P-

_Happy times! For the first time in ten years, since I finished Gold, I've finished the Pokédex! My beloved pal Key-chan traded me her Celebi for a Latios, completing my HeartGold Dex. Yay! _ _ Since it's a Celebi from Pearl, it doesn't do the Ilex Forest event, but I can wait for that. I can just go laugh and show off my bulging Pokédex XD (Screw you and your new Pokémon, Isshu. Screw you.)_

_**Parental control still exists for one of the characters- **__**Didn't they forfeit this when they let their ten year olds go off into the wilderness with a tiny animal as a companion? **__Planet Pokémon seems to have a pretty good social support structure going, don't they? (Free comprehensive healthcare FTW XDXD THAT is how to do it, NHS!) It's a very open society, too- you're wandering in and out of people's houses all the time. It's a very trusting society, probably built on the basis that if anyone ever betrays that trust, the nearest leader or the locals will brain them with their Pokémon XD If you take the various Leagues as the closest thing they have to visible government, then criminals get a Hyper Beam TO THE FACE from Lance, which probably puts a lot of people off crime XD Also, given how all those gatehouses never ever take tolls from anyone, I figure their real purpose is to keep count of how many kids go out into the wilderness and make sure that they come back out. It still does seem a bit loose, overall, and would be utterly screwed if the League Champion was evil or something, and clearly let Team Rocket run amok for far too long, but then again this was a criminal organization that was destroyed by an eleven-year-old. Twice. Suffice it to say, Pokémon society seems to set kids up pretty well to take care of themselves. They probably have outdoor skills classes and stuff at school, like having Cubs and Brownies as part of the curriculum. (I'm assuming there are high schools and colleges around for those kids who decide to stay in school rather than train Pokémon, and you just don't see them in the games because, let's face it, once you're out of school do you EVER want to go near the place again? Thought not.)_

_**Will Silver be in this fic a lot?**__ Yep. Originally, he was intended to be a one-scene wonder and then vanish, but he had other ideas. Clearly, his strongest Pokémon is his Plunnie._

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	10. Chapter IX

_**XChapter IX**_

Leaf could feel water brushing against her face. Felt cold. Felt nice. Felt _real_.

Water? Where was she? Where had she…?

Then that blissful waking moment of forgetfulness passed, and it all came back to her. She screamed. She screamed and screamed, as if the noise could take away the images, the sensations, the memories…

"Miss, can you hear me? Calm down, please! Miss Ketchum? Leaf Ketchum?"

Leaf. Leaf Ketchum. That… that was her, right? But who… what…

The images were briefly pushed back by a voice.

_It's okay. Hold on. You're back to reality. You're safe._

"I'm…?" she became vaguely aware that someone was holding her, shaking her. She looked up at a vaguely familiar face, and sighed happily. "Safe…"

Then she passed out again.

-P-

Leaf was alive, and for now, the psychic block he'd placed in her mind would keep her from remembering her experiences too fully until she was ready. But something still troubled him.

Who was the boy who'd arrived at the Ruins, sneaking around in the dead of night? And what on earth did he have with him? He'd sensed some power on the boy, but would that help him against what was in there…?

As soon as he realized, he teleported straight to Johto. Whatever was in there… if it had let Leaf go, it didn't need her anymore. It had what it needed. Which probably meant that it would _escape…_

He felt it before he even got back to the Ruins, the _wrongness_ hitting him before he'd even gotten into the Ruins. He was right; it was on the move. Dammit!

He moved slowly into the Ruins, wary of the humans in the research centre. He didn't have to go far to find the prone body of the boy, collapsed on the floor. No sign of _it_…

He probed the boy's mind, but it was all messed up. It had done something to his mind, knocking him out; if the boy woke up now, with his mind in such turmoil, it would snap. He carefully lifted the boy and teleported to a quieter location, keeping him asleep while sorting through his mind. It wouldn't do for that thing to claim another victim, and in any case he needed to know what the boy saw.

-P-

"I'm afraid this island must be evacuated immediately," Lance explained, placing Leaf carefully on Salamence's back. Normally he preferred to fly with Dragonite, but Salamence was better at carrying multiple people. "This is a League directive for your own safety."

"I understand," the nurse in charge said. "I'll close the centre."

"If you need a lift to the mainland, I'm going to ride back on my Gyarados!" a swimmer offered. Another trainer nudged him aside.

"I'm sure a Lapras ride would be much more to your tastes," he insisted. The trainers started bickering. Lance rolled his eyes.

"You can all float home on a Tentacool shoal," he said, "just go. _Now_. It's not safe here." As soon as the last had finally taken off, and as soon as he'd called Blaine to see to Cinnabar's quarantine, he got onto Salamence's back, holding carefully onto Leaf as he flew to Saffron Pokémon Centre, where Clair had taken the other victim.

"Clair? Silver?" he called on his Pokégear. "I've found Leaf Ketchum. Any luck?"

"_Janine's taking over shutting off the Pal Park, so I'm on my way to Saffron,_" Clair responded. "_How about you, kid? Silver?_"

There was no response from the young trainer.

"Silver?" Lance repeated. The background noise of the Ruins of Alph was absent. "Silver? He's not picking up. Something's wrong…"

"_You don't think maybe, in the Ruins…_" Clair asked, suddenly worried.

"I'll phone Professor Oak and find out," Lance responded. "Go home and inform the Master of what's happened."

"_Got it._" Clair clicked off, sounding worried. Much as she and Silver sparred and snarked at each other, she was genuinely fond of the younger trainer, like "the annoying little brother that you don't want to let anyone else beat on", in her words. If whatever had happened to three people had already happened to a fourth, to Silver…

-P-

"You're an early riser," Cynthia commented, leaning over her grandparent's porch fence. Lyra glanced over her shoulder while stretching, before turning around.

"Time difference is my excuse, what's yours?" She asked, doing a couple of lunge stretches. Her Pokémon were going through their own exercise; being cooped up in a pokéball wasn't the best thing for perfect health, and they were all feeling pretty perky in the morning air.

"I'm a light sleeper," Cynthia said with a shrug. "Sleeping long and heavy was never an advantage back when I travelled."

"I know what you mean," Lyra said, pulling her jacket back on. "Besides, you get to cover more ground. I have some research I want to do on Mt Coronet, before I get to Eterna City, and the earlier I start with that the more I can get done. I could camp out, but I don't want to do that while I'm researching on my own."

"You're meeting someone?" Cynthia asked, stepping down the steps and revealing herself to be carrying two bowls of fruit and cereal. Lyra'd already given her Pokémon their breakfast, but she was STARVING.

"Thanks!" she said, taking one of the bowls. "And yeah, I'm meeting a friend I mentioned before. Blue Oak. He's the Leader of the Viridian Gym in Kanto, and the strongest Leader in the Indigo League, largely because he's a former Champion of the Indigo League. He could've stayed on after Red beat him, since Red didn't want to head up our Elite Four, but he didn't want to. I think I'm the only one who's beaten him since…"

"You have Leaders tougher than your Elite Four?" Cynthia chuckled. "What's his speciality?"

"He doesn't have one," Lyra responded with a grin. "Rather like you. I'm surprised he even became a Gym Leader. He still wanders so much, it really annoys the trainers. I had to drag him back from Cinnabar Island to battle him!"

"You're probably not helping the situation by inviting him out to Sinnoh," Cynthia pointed out good-humouredly.

"Probably not," Lyra agreed, biting into a strawberry, completely unrepentant.

"So who's Red? Did you beat him too? You said you were the strongest in the Indigo League."

"Yeah… I beat him," Lyra said, her good mood abruptly dropping. Her Pokémon glanced at her, sensing the change in her mood. Cynthia frowned, but remained silent. "He's dead now, though. Team Rocket murdered him. Shot him to pieces and left him in the snow on Mt Silver…"

"… I'm sorry," Cynthia said softly. "Did you know him well? How old was he?"

"About fourteen when they murdered him," Lyra said quietly. "Younger than I am now. Sometimes, that thought won't get out of my head. When I was a kid, when I fought him, he was this older guy, this grown-up legend… now he's just a kid whose life was over way too quickly." She glanced sideways at Cynthia, then shook her head and smiled a little. "But anyway, that was years ago. Team Rocket have more than paid for it by now. Life goes on, eh?"

"Only for the living," Cynthia said softly, before shrugging and standing up. "Well, at any rate, your Pokémon are in good shape. I look forward to facing them at the League."

"I'll see you there," Lyra promised, returning her Pokémon to their pokéballs and getting ready to leave.

-P-

Crystal sighed happily as she breathed in deeply the sea air of Olivine. Much as she hated being away from Gold, it was pretty nice to be back in Johto, back _home_. Her Honchkrow would fly her back to New Bark Town in no time…

"Oh, sorry," she said as she bumped into someone, thought really, _he'd_ bumped into _her_. Was this guy sleepwalking? He didn't even stop or respond. He just walked up onto the boat, which was getting ready to head back to Hoenn. He looked kinda familiar, too, but Crystal couldn't place him. She shrugged and released Honchkrow.

"Let's go home," she said, sitting sidesaddle on his back.

"Krooow!" Honchkrow responded, saluting her with his wing before spreading both and taking flight. It was somewhere over Goldenrod that she finally placed the face; Blue Oak, wasn't it? Lyra'd mentioned that he was meeting her in Sinnoh. Maybe that was him going just now. But what had he been doing in Johto?

-P-

Silver cracked his eyes opened. The light was a little bright against them, but it was better than the images that flashed behind his closed lids. Something had gone through his head and smashed all the barriers, all the locks against feelings and memories that he'd been holding up for a long time. It left him feeling more than a little vulnerable, a feeling he disliked intensely.

_You've awakened with your sanity intact. Success._

Silver jerked straight upright, looking wildly around. He was lying on the side of a mountain, and watching him, sitting on top of a boulder, was a creature like nothing he'd ever seen. Vaguely humanoid, but with rather feline paws and hind legs and a long purple tail, the creature was watching him with the most piercing violet glare Silver had ever encountered. It was like the creature could see right through his mind, and if this was the psychic Pokémon he'd seen at the Ruins, it probably could.

"Who and _what_ are you?" He asked guardedly. The creature spoke telepathically, but in a distinctly male voice.

_I saved your mind, boy. Show a little gratitude. After the way that _thing _ripped your mind to shreds, if I'd left you there, you might never have been able to put the pieces back together alone._

"You've been through my _mind_?" Silver yelped, enraged. The inside of his head was a very personal place, dammit!

_I appreciate that, and trust me, it's not a habit. It was a regrettable necessity to repairing some of the damage. It allowed me to find the information I needed, however._

"And what was that?" Silver asked. He was still feeling very shaken. His feelings were so _raw_, and memories he was used to blocking away kept creeping into his mind.

_That creature found a mind strong enough to sustain it in this world without shattering. It has what it needed to move freely in this world._

"A…? Shit!" Silver yelped as he remembered. "Clair found the other scientist, so that guy must have been… Blue Oak! If that thing's avatar is a trainer of his calibre…"

_It will be able to use some of the most powerful trained Pokémon in existence._

"No, we won't have that to deal with," Silver said, shaking his head. "Pokémon hate that thing, they _know_ it's wrong. Blue's Pokémon won't leave their pokéballs." He tried to stand up, but he felt shaky, off-balance. He had to really _think _about how to move his arms and legs.

_Your mind is still disconnected. Relax._

"I don't have _time_," Silver snarled. "Don't you realize what that thing is? What is can do?"

_I'm afraid not. I know very little about the creature, only what I have deduced from what has happened to people and Pokémon connected to it. Three people were kidnapped, and of those that have reappeared, one was acting unusually, one's mind was shaken like yours, and one was shattered beyond repair. Thus I surmise that whatever this creature is, it needs a body or mind to support it, and a strong one. But I don't know what it _is_. That is another reason I needed to help piece your mind back together. I think you know more than I do about this thing, but few of your memories for the past several years have sufficient emotion attached to them to have been at the surface during your recent shakeup._ Silver grabbed his head redundantly. _Again, I apologize._

"Okay… thanks, I guess," Silver responded. He could still remember how it felt to feel his very _mind_ cracking up, and would be grateful not to feel it again. "This creature…" he paused, uncertain of what to say. The psychic just nodded.

_If you're uncomfortable saying it, I can pull the surface thoughts from your mind._

"Go for it," Silver sighed. It felt uncomfortably like betrayal to tell this thing the secrets that the master had only recently told him. But it _had_ saved him, and if the thing was loose, Silver'd need allies this powerful.

_I see. And I am grateful for your trust._

"What do you have against this thing, anyway?" Silver asked. "Why do you…?"

_Well, for one, I've seen in your knowledge what it might do to this world, but before that, I have a personal issue with this creature._ _And also, why I saved you… You gave me hope._

"Wait, what?" Silver said in confusion.

_I did not know family could be found._

"Family… you…?" before Silver could form a coherent question, there was a flash of light; the creature was gone, and he was sitting in front of the Dragon's Den, with Lance landing almost right on top of him.

-P-

_**Remember when the Legendary Pokémon were, you know, LEGENDARY?**__ Yes, yes I do. I remember when, bar Mew and later Celebi, they were also all POSSIBLE to catch, if incredibly difficult (worst moment of Blue- "player threw an Ultra Ball at Articuno!... Darn! It missed!" LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING. HOW THE HELL COULD IT MISS?) I could rant for a long time about this, as well as about how I think there are too many Pokémon and how the designs aren't getting as good, but you're not here to read that XD Still, I recall, a few years ago, writing a joke magazine article for an interview with Mew, where the poor little thing complained about once being so special, the ultimate Pokémon, and now feeling completely underrated as too many "ultimates" flood the Pokedex and even non-legendaries like Lucario steal all the publicity XD_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	11. Chapter X

_**Chapter X**_

"Okay Magneton, Thunder!" Lyra commanded, dropping the Zubat. If Lyra was right, the experience should raise its power levels…

Almost before the Zubat hit the ground, Magneton began to spark. Lyra opened her Pokédex to record the change. She'd already recorded a change in a Nosepass; now Magneton too? Were there unusual electromagnetic forces around the mountain? Both of the Pokémon she'd been told often mutated at Mt Coronet had some form of natural magnetism…

The metal of the three Magnemite that formed Magneton was warping and melding into a new shape. "Zooooone," it called. _That _was a new sound.

"Zone… Magnezone?" Lyra suggested.

"Maaaagneeezooooone," Magnezone agreed, the new antennae that had sprouted on top of its head- it now had a central head, with two of the Magnemite melded onto the side- twitching in response. Lyra scanned it with the Pokédex, taking new vital statistics. She'd have to get another Magneton and show Blue this; its power readings were huge!

"Congratulations, Magnezone," she said, tentatively patting its shell, unsure of whether or not it had complete control over its new power levels yet. A couple of sparks hit her fingers, but Magnezone had adapted remarkably quickly; she'd sustained worse when training a Pichu. "This is really impressive. I bet everyone back in Johto and Kanto'll want to see you!"

"Maag mag," Magnezone crooned, its eye curving in what was a smile for the Magnemite species, given how they didn't have mouths.

"Is it okay if I send you to Professor Oak, then?" Lyra asked, raising the Pokéball. Magnezone nodded its magnets in the affirmative. "Alright then. You be good for him, and we might see more of you around, eh?"

She could see daylight around the corner; she must be reaching the exit nearest Eterna City. She returned Magnezone and stepped out of the cave, blinking a little against the sunlight. Almost instantly, her Pokégear began to buzz as it got a signal.

"An email?" She said, picking it up. "No, a call! Hey, Gold!"

"_Hey, Lyra_!" Gold greeted her cheerily. "_Where ya been? I've been trying to call for ages!_"

"I was underground, no signal," Lyra said, carefully stepping onto the bridge across the river. "What's up?"

"_Ah, I was just lonely, so I thought I'd say hi._"

"Lonely? Where's Kris?"

"_Her mom bugged her to go home for a bit to see her cousin. I'd go with, but I'm kinda on a deadline for the next Ever Grande League meet, y'know?_"

"That's too bad," Lyra sympathized, then grinning as she switched to teasing mode. "Bet you _really_ miss her, huh?"

"_Hell yeah!_" Gold responded vehemently, to her surprise. "_Oh, hey, did ya hear? We're official now!_"

"For real?" Lyra squealed. "All _right_! 'Bout damn _time_! Seriously, you guys make Slowbro look like a Rapidash!"

"_Tease all you like, like I care anymore,_" Gold laughed. "_Nyah-nyeah. However, that doesn't mean a cease-fire from _me_. How're things going with ol' Bluey?_"

"He's not here yet, I've gotten to the mountain a week early," Lyra said, deliberately ignoring the jab. "It's a fascinating place. There's some real mutation going on here, I think electromagnetic fields have something to do with it. In other news, I should land my third Sinnoh badge today or tomorrow. How 'bout you?"

"_Really? Already? I'm chasing up number six myself. Fortree City, the place's called. Sounds like fun. Not as much fun as it would be with Crystal there…_"

"Awww," Lyra crooned as Gold sighed heavily. "Poor baby." She caught sight of buildings. "Much as I'd love to keep chatting and relieve you of your loneliness, Eterna City's in sight, and so's its gym. Better speed up, or I'll hit Suzuran before you reach Ever Grande City!"

"_Aw c'mon, don't hog all the championships to yourself!_" Gold teased. "_Ah, some asshole's bugging me for a battle anyway. Gold out_!"

"See ya," Lyra said before he hung up. Then she headed for the Pokémon Centre to retrieve her team and get a bed for the night. She'd have to challenge Gardenia in the morning.

-P-

"What the hell happened, Silver?" Lance asked, looping an arm around the teenager's shoulders to help him stand. Silver was extremely shaky, and very pale. His expression was odd, and it took Lance a moment to realize that it was because it was unguarded; Silver always controlled his emotions so tightly, it was both unusual and unnerving to see him let that drop.

"I saw it," he said, a little jerkily. He was trying to keep fear out of his voice, but if he meant the _it_ Lance thought he did, he had every right to be terrified. "It's…"

"Calm down," Lance said. "Collect yourself, strengthen your centre. You can tell us everything in front of the master." Silver just nodded and closed his eyes, trying to even out his breathing as they walked. He seemed a little uncoordinated. "Do you need to rest up a minute?"

"No, I need to walk," Silver said, shaking his head. "Just… reminding my brain what legs are. And what they're for. Gotta use 'em to do that."

Lance wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know what the teen meant by that, but had the uncomfortable feeling that he was about to find out.

-P-

"Hmmm," Lyra yawned in frustration, checking her phone for what felt like the fiftieth time. She'd tried calling and emailing Blue, but no response either way, not last night or this morning. What was _up_ with him?

"_Maybe I should call Daisy or somebody and ask…_" she wondered, but Typhlosion tapped her on the shoulder and growled. They'd reached the Eterna City Gym; it looked like a huge greenhouse. Lyra could see trees growing inside through the glass walls and ceilings.

"Just like Bugsy and Erika's places, huh?" she said. Typhlosion nodded and spat out an ember. "Yeah. You took them down no problem. I heard Gardenia won't battle anyone who can't beat her students, but that's hardly a problem for you, is it?"

Typhlosion grinned and roared, flaring up her flame mane.

-P-

She was drifting confusedly. Where was she? _Who_ was she? Was she… oh god, was she still…?

_You're out of that place. It's alright. You're inside your own mind, just things are still a little mixed up at the moment._

She knew that voice, the one resonating inside her mind. She sought a name. "I know you…" she said aloud. "I trust you… but right now, I can't think who you are…"

_That's alright. Like I said, your mind is jumbled. I'm trying to help put the pieces back together, but you know the inside of your head better than I do, you're the only one who really knows where everything goes. The first step is to remain calm._

"O… okay…" she sighed heavily. "Leaf," she said abruptly. "That's it. That's who I am."

_Good. Hold onto that. _

"And you… you're Mewtwo?" she said in surprise. Knowledge was trickling back into place, like it'd never left. "You're Mewtwo," she repeated. "The genetically engineered Pokémon that my brother battled. He never really said if he caught you or not…"

_He was my friend. I am indebted to him. That is why I seek to protect you now._

"Thanks," Leaf said, smiling at the inside of her mind and wondering if he could see that. But hey. He could hear her talking, so you never knew. "I… have a feeling, like I was just somewhere bad. But I can't remember it right now."

_I have sealed those memories away, until you've gotten your mind back into shape. They would crush you otherwise. _

"Okay." Leaf calmly started sorting through the mess around her, looking for familiarity, order. "Am I asleep?"

_Officially, you're in a coma in the Saffron City Hospital. Your mother is at your bedside and I am concealing myself outside of your window. _

"Sounds a bit stalkerish."

_Heh. Wisecracks. You're feeling more comfortable in yourself. You might be strong enough to regain consciousness soon._

"Will you give me my memories back then?"

_I will give you your memories at the right time. And then some of the knowledge I have accumulated elsewhere. It will be necessary._

"Hey, when I wake up…" Leaf said, still sorting through the chaos, "can you remind me that I need to call… hmm… Lyra and Crystal. They both have Pokémon connected to the Ruins of Alph, and I need to go back there. And then… there are three more Pokémon we need to find, deeply connected to the Unown."

_Do not worry. I already know where they are._

-P-

"Hey there," Lyra said, stepping up onto the challenger's podium. "I'm Lyra. You're Gardenia, right?"

A camouflaged figure stood up, separating herself from the bushes where she'd been crouched. The bud that she'd been crouched over transpired to be a Turtwig, which wandered out beside her. Gardenia herself, despite leading an all-female Gym like Erika, reminded Lyra more of Bugsy; she definitely wasn't a delicate creature like the grass mistress, and with her tomboyish haircut and shapeless green and brown clothes, Gardenia could easily be mistaken for a boy, like Bugsy was occasionally mistaken for a girl (He and Lyra got to chatting whenever she was in Azalea for custom Pokeballs, and he'd once confessed that he "might as well be gay, I get that many guys hitting on me"). From the way she jumped up onto the podium, she was just as spunky and maybe a little hyperactive. Being around a lot of nature seemed to give people a lot of energy sometimes.

"I'm Gardenia," the woman confirmed. "So you beat my students?"

"In no time," Lyra confirmed, patting Typhlosion's paw. "I hope you're better than them. Typhlosion's not exactly running on fumes here."

"So you'll lead with Typhlosion?" Gardenia said with a worrying grin. Lyra looked at Typhlosion, who nodded. Gardenia had something up her sleeve, but they were ready to counter it.

"Sure," Lyra said. "Why make things tough on myself?"

"Alright, then…" Gardenia nodded to something in the bushes, which stepped forwards. The entire _bush_ moved, and only then did Lyra realize it was a Torterra. "Let's go, Torterra!"

"Ah, geez," Lyra moaned. "Typhlosion! Cut!"

"Torterra, Earthquake!" Gardenia responded, knocking Typhlosion off her feet as she slashed at the tree on Torterra's back, which dealt a major but unfortunately not critical wound. "Now Stone Edge!"

"Typhlosion, return!" Lyra called before the strike could hit. "No point in knocking you out here. I'll need your best strike later."

"Cut's pretty effective against delicate grass-types," Gardenia acknowledged. "So what now? Another fire-type?"

"Nah, I've got a better idea than fire," Lyra said, "though I never thought I'd say that. Go for it, Noctowl!"

"Nooooc!" Noctowl hooted, flying out of his pokéball and flying in circles over the arena. It was Gardenia's turn to moan in frustration.

"Ground that thing with Stone Edge, Torterra!" she commanded.

"You're faster, Noctowl! Psychic!" Lyra commanded. Noctowl's psychic blast smacked into Torterra and knocked it out of the battle clearing before it had even raised the stones. "Good job!"

"If you want to take this fight to the sky, I'll use Jumpluff!" Gardenia cried, releasing the floating blue Pokémon. "Toxic!"

"Quick, Noctowl, heat wave!" Lyra commanded, but Jumpluff was faster. The heat wave blasted it away, but not before Noctowl took a hit of poisonous purple sludge. "Noctowl!"

"Toooo…" Noctowl moaned as the poison began to take its toll. He nibbled his leftovers, which would keep him going for a while, but the poison was depleting his health too quickly. "Just hang on!"

"Finish it with a Shadow Ball!" Gardenia commanded, returning the floored Jumpluff and calling on a Roserade, which sashayed out of the bushes and fired a black ball at Noctowl… which passed harmlessly through it.

"Sorry, but while it uses many psychic attacks, Noctowl isn't a psychic-type," Lyra said. "But if I recall correctly, Roserade is grass/poison, yes? Pretty weak against psychic!"

"Toooow Noc!" Noctowl hooted, sending another psychic blast at Roserade, which threw it right back into the bushes it came from. Noctowl landed in front of Lyra, visibly ailing.

"That's enough for now, Noctowl," she said, returning him. "No point in pushing it too far. You can take it from here, right, Ampharos?"

"An electric-type?" Gardenia said in surprise. "Bellossom, you're up! Sunny Day!"

"Bella!" The Bellossom said brightly, dancing into the clearing. She did a little dance, causing the sun to shine strongly on the field.

"I can guess that you're aiming for a serial Solarbeam," Lyra said, "but first you've charged up Ampharos' Fire Punch! Take it!"

"Aaaaaaaa!" Ampharos yelled as her fist caught ablaze, punching Bellossom right out.

"Agh!" Gardenia yelped. She put Bellossom into a pokéball and looked around, before grinning. "But it's not the end yet. Is it, Cherrim?"

"Cheeeri!" Cherrim sang, jumping into the field. Due to the Sunny Day, it was in full bloom, pink petals spread and a bright smile on its little face. At that moment, Lyra's phone rang.

"Kinda busy right now," she said quickly into the phone, intending to hang up straight away, but Professor Oak yelled before she could.

"_Come to Kanto, Leaf's awake and she's asking for you!_"

"She's _awake?_ What do you mean?" Lyra asked, momentarily distracted. "What happened to-?"

"Don't you dare ignore me!" Gardenia yelled, visibly annoyed, as Cherrim suddenly lit up in a blaze of light that knocked Ampharos off her feet.

"Solarbeam?" Lyra yelped. Gardenia nodded.

"You sussed my strategy, just with the wrong Pokémon," she admonished Lyra. "That's what you get for not paying attention."

"Ampharos, return!" Lyra called. "Alright… come back out, Typhlosion!"

"Typhlosion?" Gardenia said in surprise. "But Torterra already dealt it a serious blow! It won't last long!"

"She only needs one attack, and with the powerup of Sunny Day, it won't take her as much energy to use it," Lyra said. "Right, Typhlosion?"

"TyyyPHLOOOO!" Typhlosion cried, blasting out a powerful wave of fire; the ultimate fire attack, Blast Burn. Cherrim didn't stand a chance.

"Okay, Professor," Lyra said into her Pokégear. "Give me two minutes to get my badge, and then tell me just what the hell you're talking about."

-P-

_**What do you think of the new fire starter?**__ I think it's really cute, but the other two… not so much. Most of the Pokémon are way too weird these days. The original idea was meant to be a virtual simulation of going out into the woods to find interesting bugs and animals, something Tajiri-sama loved doing as a child but feared that industrialization would make it impossible for modern children to do. True to that, I vastly prefer the Pokémon that look like something you'd see on a field trip rather than an acid trip._

_(This whole thing at the bottom was meant to be about questions about the story, but most of them aren't… I take that as a good sign that the story's not losing anyone XD)_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	12. Chapter XI

_**Chapter XI**_

"Hello?" The lady was about the same age as Crystal's mom, probably, but she looked much older, very strained and tired. Crystal felt very embarrassed to be disturbing her, but it was a good excuse to get away from her cousin Sapphire's pestering and stories about red flying Pokémon, and anyway apparently she'd been asked for by name.

"I… I'm Crystal Christie," she introduced herself, wishing her name didn't sound so stupid. It seemed kinda incongruous in the situation. "Professor Oak called me, saying that Leaf Ketchum was asking for me…"

"Oh…" She affected a smile. "Yes, my daughter mentioned you. Said she needed to talk to her friends…"

"Um… yeah," Crystal said, not feeling any less embarrassed. She'd heard of Leaf Ketchum from Lyra, but she couldn't remember if she'd actually met the girl. "Can I see her?"

"Of course, dear," Mrs Ketchum said, stepping back and holding the door open. Crystal stepped inside, shuffling over to the bed where a girl about her age, maybe a little older, was lying with one arm flung over her eyes. The arm itself was trembling a little, though probably not from cold, since the hospital was warm enough to melt a Frosslass. She had long brown hair splayed about a little haphazardly on the pillow and an extremely pale complexion, though Crystal suspected that wasn't how she normally looked.

"Hi?" Crystal said, lingering by the side of the bed, shuffling from foot to foot. She didn't sit down until she heard the door close, realizing that Mrs Ketchum had left the room. Leaf peeked out from behind her arm, and then smiled thinly.

"Hi," she responded quietly. "You must be Crystal. Lyra told me about you."

"Call me Kris," Crystal said. "Um… how are you?"

"Been better. Been worse." Leaf pushed herself up a little against the pillows. "I know we haven't actually met before, so I guess you're wondering why I asked for you…"

"Pretty much, yeah," Crystal said with a shrug. "I'm sorry, I don't quite…"

"Lyra told me," Leaf said, "That you tracked down and captured the Legendary Dogs. Entei, Suicune and Raikou."

"Yeah… wait, what? You know? She _told_ you?" Crystal gasped in surprise. She'd only ever told Gold and Lyra, and the three of them had a sort of unspoken pact not to talk too publicly about the more unusual Pokémon they'd captured. "If you don't mind my asking… _why_?"

"She said I reminded her of you," Leaf explained, "When she found out that I'd tracked down and captured Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres."

"Really? Wow," Crystal said, relaxing. "Okay, that makes sense. I mean, we don't normally…"

"I know what you mean," Leaf said, nodding. "If the world knew we had them, there'd be thieves after us all the time, and researchers and Pokémon fans all over us, not to mention the media. Nah, best to keep it on the down-low. But he Dogs are the very reason I asked for you and Lyra."

"But not Gold?" Crystal asked, taking it as read that Leaf probably knew about Lugia too. Leaf shook her head.

"I… can't remember yet exactly what happened to me," Leaf said unsteadily. "I'll remember at the right time. But it happened at the Ruins of Alph. And aside from the Unown, the Pokémon most connected with the Ruins…"

"The Dogs and Ho-oh," Crystal realized. "I get it. I know Ho-oh's image is all over the Ruins, and the Dogs are connected because Ho-oh's their master. Lugia's more suspected to be the master of the Birds, right?"

"That's right," Leaf agreed. "So my prime aim is to talk to you and Lyra, though if you think Gold ought to get involved, by all means. Another legendary can't hurt."

"Got it." Crystal fidgeted for a moment, and then stood up. "Visiting hours'll probably be up soon, so I'd better go get a bunk at the Pokémon Centre. I'll check the ferry times while I'm at it, see when Lyra's likely to be back. I'll get the Dogs too… just in case."

"Thank you," Leaf said, and then sank back down, putting the arm over her eyes again. She was putting real pressure on them; Crystal wondered if she was amusing herself by watching the crazy patterns that popped up whenever you pressed too hard on closed eyes. "I'll see you."

"See you," Crystal said, slipping away.

-P-

"No ferry until tomorrow evening?" Lyra said in dismay, staring at the ferry times. Professor Oak hadn't been on the phone for long, but he'd managed to convey that Leaf Ketchum had gone missing for several days before reappearing mysteriously at Cinnabar Island in a coma. Now she was awake, and had asked for Lyra. He'd sounded very rushed and harried, and Lyra hadn't pushed him for too any details before he hung up.

She was rushing herself; she'd actually withdrawn Ho-oh to Fly back to Sunyshore, and was seriously considering using the Phoenix to get back to Johto. She was worried about Leaf. She'd become very good friends with the older girl, and felt obligated to see to her safety, partly due to her probably misaimed but nevertheless powerful guilt over the circumstances of the death of Leaf's brother. Leaf never held any of it against Lyra, which only made it worse, not least because Leaf didn't know the whole story.

That might be why Blue wasn't responding to phone calls. He didn't have a Pokégear, so if/when he left him gym, you were pretty much screwed for finding him unless someone knew where he'd gone, which wasn't always the case. He'd probably left his gym to go see Leaf; the two were pretty close, not surprising since they'd grown up together.

She looked up at the ferry times again, as if they'd have changed. Typhlosion shook her head. There wasn't a ferry directly to Kanto or Johto- they were too far away- and the next ferry to Hoenn wasn't until tomorrow night. What was worse, she realized, was that that ferry went to Lilycove, which unlike Slateport had no ferries to Kanto and only had weekly ferries to Johto rather than every other day. And what were the odds that weekly ferry went yesterday? She could make her way to Slateport, but she didn't know Hoenn well enough to Fly it, so she'd have to go by foot, which would probably take more time than it would save.

"Screw it," she decided, taking a run back to Route 222 to find a quiet place to release Ho-oh. Ho-oh had a homing instinct towards Ecruteak, and from there they knew how to Fly to Saffron. From there, she'd get to find out just what the hell was going on, and maybe whose ass she needed to kick to make it right.

She'd get to see Blue again, too. It'd been _ages_, and she kinda missed the arrogant loudmouth.

-P-

Leaf lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Finally, she whispered, "I'm ready. Let me remember."

_Are you sure?_

"I need to be able to make sense of it all by morning. I have to start now."

_Okay. And… I'm sorry._

"Don't be. It's not your fault. Thank you for worrying, though."

The mental block dropped. Leaf cried for a long time, but quietly. She didn't want to rouse everyone and have to explain. She couldn't yet.

Mewtwo kept watch and offered her mental comfort. He remained there until she was released to go home to Pallet Town the next morning, it being generally agreed that her wounds were mental and emotional only and that the comforting environment of home would be more conducive to recovery. He couldn't follow her home; the people she was meeting there were too likely to discover him. At the moment, he was still too frightened of that.

-P-

"Go down there," Lyra said, indicating the woods between Pallet Town and Viridian City. It was fairly secluded, so she could return Ho-oh in peace, and the miniscule population of Pallet was unlikely to be watching the skies anyway. They were a pretty close-knit little bunch, barely enough people to qualify as a town rather than a village, and since Leaf had been allowed to come home this morning, they were probably all there to greet her.

"Lyra!" Daisy called in greeting as Lyra walked past the Oaks' house. "Good, you're here! I've been to see Leaf already, but she's not too well. No physical damage, but mentally… your friend Kris is already here. Grampa and Mrs Ketchum are going to be there too. I think Leaf's going to try to tell us what happened to her. You're just in time."

"Got it," Lyra said with a nod. Blue wasn't going to be there? Maybe he'd gone travelling elsewhere and they were having as hard a time getting in touch with him as Lyra was.

She was a little uncomfortable walking through the Ketchums' house; the last time she'd been here, she realized, was when she'd gone into Red's room to offer his mother a few words of consolation after Red's funeral. In fact, it was Red's room they went into. Leaf was in there, lying on a second bed that Lyra hadn't noticed before. So the siblings had shared a room. While being home was probably comforting, Lyra had to wonder how comforting being in this particular room was to a girl in a demonstrably frail mental state.

She _looked_ frail, drained, a little frightened. She was staring a little vaguely out of the window when Lyra and Daisy came in.

"Hey, Leaf," Lyra said softly, offering her an encouraging smile. Leaf was visibly trying to return it, but the muscles in her face didn't seem up to it. "Hey, Kris. Nice to see you again, Mrs Ketchum, Professor Oak."

"And you, dear," Mrs Ketchum said. The room wasn't too large, so she was sitting on Red's bed, Daisy sitting next to her. The Professor was sitting on a chair whisked away from the computer on the other side of the room. Lyra just joined Crystal in leaning against the wall between Red and Leaf's beds.

"Thanks for coming, all of you," Leaf said. Lyra frowned. She'd only known Leaf since her brother's death, but save a short period after Red's funeral she'd always been a bubbly, vivacious girl. Now she was as solemn as if Red had died yesterday, if not more so, and her voice was as thin and weak as if she were on the verge of death herself. "I want to try to explain what I went through after I vanished… I'm not sure if I can, but I'll try."

"Do you know what took you, Leaf?" Professor Oak asked gently.

"I don't know," Leaf said dully. Daisy looked down at her hands, her expression shadowed. "I don't know what it was. It wasn't human, or like any Pokémon I've ever seen." The Professor just nodded grimly.

"Leaf, honey," her mom said, sounding frightened but firm, "do you have any idea, any at all, where you were?"

"I don't know," Leaf said dully. Her tone remained disturbingly empty.

"C'mon Leaf!" Daisy burst out, suddenly angry. "In a forest, a house, a cave, anything! You've gotta have something better than "I don't know"! _Please_!"

"I don't know, Daisy." Daisy opened her mouth to speak again, but Leaf's eyes flashed as she grabbed the laptop that was sitting on her bedside table, yanking it open and pulling up an image. They all stared at it, blinked, rubbed their eyes, and kept staring.

"What… _is_ that?" Crystal asked tentatively. Leaf didn't answer her.

"I don't know where I was," she said in a soft, low voice, like the faint, distant rumble of a volcano erupting countries away. "This is what it looked like. This is what it felt like."

"How does it… keep changing?" Her mother said faintly.

"Oh, so it's not just me?" Lyra said in only marginal relief.

"It's not changing," Leaf said in that same calm, steady, _dangerous_ voice. "What keeps changing is your brain's attempts to comprehend it, to rationalize it into something we can understand." She snapped the lid closed, to palpable relief. Lyra couldn't stop staring at it, but she was starting to think that she was seeing _faces_ in it… "I won't let you look any longer, because I know what'll happen then. Your brain will keep trying to make sense of it, creating ever more confusing and disorienting images, until it gives up and tries to replace it. It'll try to replace it with things you know, people or Pokémon especially, but the images'll be altered by the fading of memory and your own perceptions, so they'll never look quite right. Often it'll deliberately choose frightening images, as if it wasn't _already_ completely obvious that you were somewhere you shouldn't be. And it gets worse when…" her eyes glazed over, but her monotone continued. They all stared in transfixed horror.

"That place got into your mind. You couldn't understand where you where, or when you were. Then you who forgot who you were, _what_ you were; when it hurt, you wondered _why_ you were. You got so confused that you wondered if you really were at all, until the pain happened. The entire place hurt a little, but sometimes there was this voice that you'd hear… feel… this voice that would _happen_, and said things that made no sense, even when I knew what words were. And it _hurt_. In everything, it hurt…"

"Oh, Leaf," her mom gasped, tears trailing visibly down her cheeks. Daisy looked strongly like she was about to be sick. Lyra imagined that she didn't look much better herself. She exchanged glances with Crystal, who had her arms around herself and was shivering a little.

"Pain," Leaf said, focusing on them again. "It's an indicator that something's wrong. And that entire place was _very_ wrong. You know how wrong it was? You know how I talked about the brain replacing things you can't comprehend with images you know? Well, you know what I saw? I saw Red, mom." Real horror was leaking into her voice like tears were leaking from her eyes, like water leaks from a cracking dam. "That place was so wrong that it was _easier_ for me to see _twisted images_ of my _dead brother_. It snapped Harold's mind like a twig, and sometimes I think it did the same to me, because every time I close my eyes now, I see it again…" The dam burst, Leaf collapsing into full-fledged sobs at the same moment her mother did, diving over to wrap her daughter in her arms. The two clung to each other, sobbing. Daisy, paler than ever, bolted from the room.

Feeling like an intruder into an intensely personal family scene, Lyra left too, deciding to try the bathroom for Daisy, given how sick she'd been looking. She guessed right; the sound of retching was emanating from the bathroom across from Red and Leaf's room. Lyra followed it in and knelt next to Daisy, pulling back her hair and patting her back soothingly as the woman heaved. Crystal followed, though stayed hovering outside the room, since she didn't know Daisy as well.

"Here," Lyra said, handing Daisy a bit of toilet paper to wipe her face off with.

"Thank you," Daisy croaked, breathing hard and fast.

"Hey, calm down," Lyra said, hitting the flush and pulling the lid down so Daisy could sit on it. It took her a couple tries because her hands were shaking, and wondered if she wouldn't need to puke herself in a moment, For now, her own horror was being held back in favour of caring for Daisy. "Don't hyperventilate. Relax. Leaf's home now, she'll be okay. It's okay."

"It's not okay," Daisy gasped. "Oh, Lyra, don't you _know_?"

"Know what?" Lyra said uneasily. Fresh tears poured from Daisy's eyes.

"He went looking for them," Daisy said in a strangled voice. "He went in there and he never came back…"

"Who's in there?" Lyra asked, panic rising. No. No, it couldn't be. Please, no… "Daisy, _who_?"

"Blue," Daisy gasped. "My little brother's in there. He's still there. Oh, Blue…" She collapsed into violent, uncontrollable sobbing. Lyra stood frozen for a moment, with a feeling like her chest and been hollowed out, then proceeded to jerk over to the sink and empty her stomach.

-P-

The assembled dragon clan members mostly just stared, dumbstruck, at Silver as he finished speaking. The Master looked like his worst fears had been confirmed, which they probably had. Clair looked outright furious.

"We have to release this poor child that has become its host," the Master said. "But how…"

"Let's try pinning the kid down and beating it out of him, see if that works," Clair growled. Lance grabbed her shoulder.

"Clair, calm down," he said tensely. "Somehow I don't think that'll work. We need to figure out a way to draw it out first…"

"The legendary guardian of the Ruins of Alph," the Master said. "It might be able to defeat this creature, as it did before…"

"You mean Ho-oh, Master?" Kobe asked, frowning. "But how will we find it?"

"The Kimono Girls of Ecruteak," the Master said. "They have protected the ancient lore of the great birds…"

"It might come back to the Ruins, too," Silver suggested, starting to stand up, though he was wobbly. He tried to shake it off. Clair stood up too.

"No way, kid," she said forcefully. "Just look at you, you're shaking like a leaf! Just chill and we'll do it, okay?"

"But the clan's vow…"

"Screw the vow!" Clair said angrily. "What's the point? We can't sacrifice one of us for some hokey old promise-!"

"Clair," Silver said sharply. "It's okay. Really. I _want_ to go. I _want_ to know what's going on…"

"_Besides_," he thought, tapping the three Heavy Balls unconsciously, "_This thing will take more than dragons to put down, and we all know it._"

-P-

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	13. Chapter XII

_**Chapter XII**_

"Check this place _out_!" Gold cried. Az, his Azumarill, bounced up on his tail and cheered as he caught sight of the city. "It's made of _treehouses_! How cool is _that_?"

"Yeah, everyone takes it like that," A guy chuckled. He was shining the wings of a Skarmory. "And they'd be right, at least about the cool part. The houses're pretty airy, which is great like just now, in the summer, but you wouldn't believe how hard it is to get 'em warm in the winter, 'specially since fires are such a huge deal!"

"I'll bet," Gold laughed. "Hey, this place have a gym?"

"You bet it does," The guy said, hopping on his Skarmory's back. "I'll fly you there, if you've got a flier!"

"Of course," Gold said, releasing his Skarmory with a grin. "Check him out! Say hi, Skaz!" Skaz shrieked and spread his wings.

"Wow," the guy whistled. Skaz was visibly larger than his Skarmory, and his wings had a brighter sheen. "Your Skarmory's pretty well-trained. Hey, the name's Humberto. Call me Bert. You?"

"Gold, from New Bark Town in Johto," Gold called, taking flight after Bert. "I'm taking on the Hoenn League."

"Well, getting past Winona'll take some wind from your sails," Bert chuckled, indicating the gym they were flying over. It was a treehouse, too, but it was open-roofed. "You're clearly a decent trainer, but there's no greater master of flying-types than Winona!"

"A flying leader, huh?" Gold mused, already thinking which of his Pokémon had electric or rock attacks. "Sounds like a decent challenge. So where is she?"

"Hold it," Bert laughed as they landed. "You won't get near Winona until you beat the rest of us!"

"The rest?" Gold asked, looking around as several other trainers flew down, a few bird keepers and some kids as well. He'd been to gyms where the leaders had a few students, but it looked like the entire town wanted to test him before he could get near Winona…

He released Pomz, his Ambipom, who was not only well-suited to fighting flying Pokémon, since his two tails would allow him to move around this treetop environment with ease, but also knew Thunder.

"All right then, bring it!"

-P-

Lyra sat with her head between her knees, breathing deeply the clean air of Pallet Town. It was refreshing, but it wasn't doing her much good. Her head was still a mess, on the verge of panic.

"Lyra, I'm sure it's okay…" Crystal said, sitting down next to her and putting her arms around her best friend's shoulders. Lyra shook her head.

"It's _not_ okay," she said hoarsely. "Were you not _listening_ to Leaf? Blue's in that place, and nobody found him like they found Leaf and the other guy-!"

"No, Lyra, he _is_ okay, I'm sure of it," Crystal said vehemently. "I just realized something. He vanished like a week ago, right? But how do we know he vanished into that other dimension, and not that he found something and just ran off without telling the researchers about it? I mean, I know he doesn't carry a Pokégear, so if he was wandering, he wouldn't really be in touch, would he?"

"But nobody's seen him in a week…" Lyra whispered. To her surprise, Crystal smiled.

"_I_ did," Crystal said soothingly. "When I got back into Olivine the other day. I ran into him in the harbour, I swear. I dunno where he was going or what he was doing, but I swear it was him, okay? He's alright, just outta the loop."

"You're _certain_?" Lyra said in surprise. Crystal nodded emphatically. A great weight lifted off her shoulders. "Well, we've gotta go tell Daisy and the Professor! You realize how _worried_ they are?"

"As worried as you?" Crystal teased, sticking her tongue out at Lyra. Lyra pushed her over and stood up.

"Why're you just lying there?" She taunted. "We've got important info to deliver!"

-P-

"The ghosts are restless."

The old lady looked up from her book, and then set it down to go join her husband at the doorway. He was looking down at the fog-wreathed mountains, through which shadows fluttered to and fro. They were unusually active.

"You think someone they don't like is here?" She mused.

"Or someone they want to test.

"Heh. That could well be true. It's been a long time."

-P-

"Oooraaaahhh…" Gold yawned loudly, making Az giggle. Fortree City was pretty tight; _everybody_ knew the moment Gold beat Winona, and everyone wanted to come congratulate him. It was getting on for eleven at night, and Gold, despite being a teenager now and definitely not needing a bedtime anymore, no way, was getting pretty wasted. He wanted to be up in the morning to hit Lilycove in decent time; it didn't have a gym, but it did have a port, and therefore might have Crystal.

"We keeping you up, kiddo?" Winona laughed. She was a very pretty lady maybe ten years older than Gold who was constantly making him remind himself that he was with Crystal now.

"It was a tough battle," he said magnanimously. "I gotta rest up. 'Specially since I wanna see if I can hit Lilycove tomorrow."

"You know, maybe you should check out Mt Pyre on the way," Winona suggested. "It's only a small detour…"

"What's Mt Pyre?" Gold asked, bringing up his Pokégear map. Winona indicated the location.

"It's a burial mountain for Pokémon," she said. "There are said to be great secrets at the top that the spirits protect, only for the sight of strong and true trainers. The spirits judge your heart when you climb, and mostly, you'll just end up completely turned around and going back the way you came. If they really don't like you, you'll fall into terrible nightmares. But I don't get the feeling that'll happen to _you_, Gold," she added with a wink. Gold thought very hard about Crystal. "Anyway, you should check it out!"

"Hey, it's not too far off course on the way to Lilycove," Gold said, looking down at the blinking icon on the map. "Who knows? Sounds pretty cool…"

-P-

Leaf sat up, staring around the dark room. It was comforting to know that Blue wasn't in that place, but it didn't change the fact that Harold probably wasn't going to recover for a long time, if ever, and didn't change the fact that Leaf now knew the form of her nightmares for about the next fifty years.

"Can't sleep? Or won't?"

Leaf looked over at Lyra, who was sitting up and watching her, as was Crystal, though she was still lying down. They were both sleeping in Red's bed; they'd offered to sleep in their sleeping bags on the floor, but both Leaf and her mother had quietly but firmly insisted that since they had a spare bed, one of them should take it. They'd ended up both taking it; apparently, since they and Gold had known each other roughly since they were born, three-in-a-bed sleepovers had been the norm for about the first ten years of their lives (Crystal had joked about her mom offering to buy two spare beds for when Gold and Lyra slept over, roughly every third night). Leaf could remember similar scenarios when she was small; she and Red sleeping over at Blue and Daisy's, or vice-versa, and all of them ending up sleeping in a dogpile. It was certainly cosier than an extra duvet, especially in winter. Her stomach clenched remembering that warmth, that security, now lost forever; Red was dead, Blue often gone or incommunicado, and Leaf herself was home so rarely that she hardly had any contact with her old friends.

"Y'know, I kind of envy you two," she said softly, seeking to divert the conversation. "Even after you started travelling, you're still so close. And it's indefinable, but I feel like Gold's still with you too."

"If he was in this bed, they'd both boot me out," Lyra said lightly, winking at Crystal, who flushed and shoved Lyra.

"I just might anyway," she taunted. "Payback's a bitch, and so am I if I don't get my sleep!"

"Don't I know it," Lyra groaned, shoving back, "but I don't think anyone's very cheery on no sleep. Eh, Leaf?" the playful banter dissolved, Lyra leaning over to look at Leaf in concern. "But then again, just that photo alone's probably going to give _me_ nightmares. Living it…"

"I know what I'm going to see when I close my eyes," Leaf said softly. "And I'm so afraid. I can't…"

"Try this," Crystal suggested, diving to the end of her bed and digging in her bag and pulling out something on a string. It was a little charm, with feathers and beads woven into it. "It's a dreamcatcher. It catches nightmares and gives you a restful night's sleep." She got up to tie the dreamcatcher to the lamp on the ceiling. "My grandma gave it to me."

"It really works," Lyra said encouragingly. "I don't think she's ever had a nightmare in her life, because she never leaves that thing behind. I know _I've _never had a nightmare whenever I'm sleeping in the same place as Crystal…" she trailed off, a little haunted. Leaf wanted to say something snarky about hokey charms, but trailed off at that look.

"What're your nightmares about?" She asked softly. Lyra looked down, not moving as Crystal flopped back down and proceeded to steal all the sheets.

"… In some ways, I don't suppose they're too different to yours," she whispered, before lying down and getting into a quiet tussle with Crystal over the sheets. Leaf lay down too, rolling over and listening to the two settle down. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the dreamcatcher hanging from the ceiling.

"_She wasn't joking,_" she thought. "_And I can imagine what makes up her nightmares. I've never been up Mt Silver, but Blue said that the constantly overcast weather makes it feel like night all the time, and hailing too. Sounds bad enough to me, and I've never found a body up there. Especially not right after fighting them._"

Eventually, she drifted off, thinking of her brother. But the images never twisted as she'd feared they would, and all night she was lost in happy memories.

-P-

Leaf was still sound asleep when Lyra got up, and Crystal gone, probably already up and downstairs getting breakfast. Lyra glanced up at the dreamcatcher and smiled. Leaf didn't seem to have had nightmares all night; whatever that dreamcatcher was made out of, it worked.

"Thought so," she said as she got to the bottom of the stairs, nodding at Crystal as she cleaned off her plate. "Morning- hey, are those PANCAKES?"

"Yes they are," Leaf's mom laughed. "Maple syrup or butter?"

"Both, please," Lyra squeed happily, gazing worshipfully at the pile of golden pancakes she started piling onto a plate. "You are a wonderful person."

"Wonderful cook, too," Crystal said, running a finger around the edge of her plate to scoop up some maple syrup. "You have no idea how hard it is to get decent pancakes in mass-produced-food cafeterias. And forget trying to cook them properly when camping."

"Your dreamcatcher worked wonders on Leaf, by the way," Lyra said. "Thank you sooo much," she added, bowing to Mrs Ketchum as she was handed a plate of syrup-sodden pancakes. "Anyway, she's still sleeping soundly."

"Oh, that's wonderful," Mrs Ketchum said with a gentle smile. "I was so worried… she suffered terrible nightmares all through her coma, it seems. No amount of sedative could calm her, they said…" she trailed off with a pained expression.

"She's tough," Crystal said, walking over to the sink and beginning to wash her plate, before Mrs Ketchum plucked it out of her hands and started doing it for her, almost automatically. "She'll be fine, in time. Don't worry."

"Speak of a Gengar," Lyra commented around a mouthful of pancake as Leaf walked down the stairs slowly. Mrs Ketchum immediately bolted to her daughter's side, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"How're you feeling, honey?" She asked gently. "Should you be up?"

"I'm fine, mama," Leaf insisted, sounding a little stronger though her voice was still a touch wobbly. By the same token, she looked healthier than she had before, but was still unusually pale. "I don't want to stay in bed. I need to go back to the Ruins."

Mrs Ketchum went as pale as her daughter, freezing where she stood, causing Leaf to break away and sink down onto a chair. "Leaf, no," she said faintly. "Think what happened the last time you went there…"

"I don't know what happened down there," Leaf said firmly, "but I do know that it won't happen again. I know somebody who's been inside since, and… whatever it was didn't take them. Trust me, mama, it's safe now. And I have to know. I have to know what it was down there."

"We'll go with you," Lyra announced, glancing at Crystal. "You up for that, Kris?"

"You bet," Crystal agreed with a nod, hands on her hips. "I can think of just the Pokémon for the occasion."

"What a coincidence," Lyra said with a grin. "So can I."

Mrs Ketchum looked nonplussed, but Leaf nodded. "You're right. They've been carved into the oldest images in the Ruins. They'll be perfect for facing whatever's down there." She looked her mother in the eye. "Mama, you have to understand. I have to know."

"I know you do, honey," Mrs Ketchum said, shaking her head slowly. "But you have to understand… I nearly lost you, too. I can't…" she shook her head, tears dribbling down her cheeks. Leaf stood up and wrapped her arms around her.

"It'll be okay, I promise, Mrs Ketchum," Lyra said quietly. "We'll be there with her. She won't be on her own." Crystal glanced at her in concern for a brief moment, before looking back at the Ketchums and nodding.

"You're our girl, Leaf, and we ain't letting anything happen to you," she said with a friendly wink. Leaf looked surprised for a moment, and then laughed. Lyra remembered her words from the previous night, envious of their friendship; she didn't have to worry.

Lyra, especially, was determined that Mrs Ketchum wouldn't have to lose another child.

"Thank you," Leaf said softly. She sniffed a little, and then grinned. "Mama… are those pancakes I smell?"

-P-

_**How are you writing this so fast?**__ Because I didn't start posting until I was nearly finished, and at this point I've actually finished writing this story XDXD However, this whole thing has spawned an entire ficverse in my mind, and I've already written up outlines for three prequels, at least two sequels and a metric shitload of oneshots… XDXDXD_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	14. Chapter XIII

_**Chapter XIII**_

"Well, ain't this the most comforting and welcoming little nook in Hoenn, eh?" Gold snorted, looking up at the mist-wreathed mountain. He couldn't even tell how tall it was, nor its features. The mist didn't seem to have rolled in across the water that surrounded the mountain, situated as it was in the middle of a huge lake, nor was it going anywhere or fading in the sunlight. It simply clung to the upper half of the mountain, telling anyone thinking of climbing it to think twice. Az's ears were drooping. She looked more than a little nervous. "Well, might as well check it out like Winona suggested, eh?"

At the base of the mountain was a lighted cave entrance; lighted because, it transpired, there was a graveyard inside. Neat rows of headstones traversed the room, with a few people here and there praying or placing flowers on graves. Gold imagined that it must have been like how Lavender Tower looked, before it was turned into a Radio Tower. It was probably similar to how the catacombs of Pokémon House looked, but he'd never been into them.

"Gotta wonder why they'd build a radio tower over a grave tower, huh?" He mused quietly to Az, not wanting to disturb the security of the place as he made his way towards the back, where it opened up again onto misty slopes. "Wouldn't you get cursed for something like that? Or maybe they just hear weird stuff when they tune in late at night. Y'know, poke-ghosts!"

"Rill!" Az said, shivering and slapping Gold with her tail. Gold sniggered, and then quickly grew appropriately solemn as a girl placing a bouquet of lilies on a grave glared at him. He bolted out into the weak sunlight that filtered through the mist.

"I don't think Maz'll have much luck here," he mused, referring to his Macargo, whom he normally depended on to light up dim environments. "His body'll cool right down, and that's no good. Okay, Brez!"

"Um!" his Umbreon barked as Gold released her. Her gold markings began to glow faintly. It wasn't the kind of light your optometrist would want you to read by, but it was enough for Gold to find his way safely up.

"Let us know if you sense any ghosts, 'kay?" he asked Brez. As a dark-type, Brez would probably be the first to know if anything supernatural was near.

It wasn't all ghost-types; he saw several Vulpix as well, though they were different in nature from Vulpix he'd seen before. They kept creating will-o-the-wisps, floating balls of fire that seemed like ghosts themselves from a distance, and contorting them into disturbing shapes and figures in the mist. The occasional Wingull flew overhead, from the sea, and Chimecho occasionally drifted past, their cries and chimes echoing hauntingly through the mist. It didn't help that there were gravestones up here, but visibly older ones, rotted and crumbling and often written in scripts that Gold could neither identify nor read. Before long, he and Az were both shivering, and not from the cold.

"How high does this thing go?" He complained, hauling himself over another rock and giving what he would never admit to being a girly shriek when he realized that it was a mostly-crumbled tombstone, moss covering the obscure lettering. Brez sniggered a little, but she was panting, getting worn out from the high climb and all the ghost-types she was fighting, though the latter had begun to drop off as the former got sharply steeper.

"It's not much higher, young'un," a creaky old voice commented. Gold looked up to find himself being watched by a shrivelled old man, perched on a rock with a Chimecho hovering over his shoulder. Gold dusted himself off a little and wondered if he'd hear the shriek.

"Hey," he said. "I'm Gold."

"Nice to meet ye," the old man said with a nod. "Ye must be a great trainer to make it this high."

"Having great Pokémon helps," Gold said magnanimously, crouching next to Brez and rubbing her ears. She cooed happily. The old man nodded again, smiling. Chimecho chirruped something, and the old man nodded again, causing the little psychic Pokémon to fly off. "So, you come here often?"

"Me wife and I live up here," the old man said, springing to his feet and tapping Gold on the head with his cane. "Since the Pokémon like ye, we'll show ye something interesting. Come!"

"Uh, sure," Gold said, hurrying after the surprisingly sprightly old man. Az and Brez followed behind, a little buoyed up by the prospect of a rest stop coming up.

-P-

"It's empty," Leaf noted, glancing around the darkened windows of the research centre. "Guess everyone left."

"Can you blame them?" Daisy said softly, glancing around and shivering. She'd insisted quietly but vehemently on coming, not completely convinced by Crystal's insistences that she'd seen Blue in Olivine. "This place is so creepy…"

"Actually, this is its normal level of creepy," Leaf said, looking around with a frown. "At the time, it was creepier… I can't explain it. But the aura of the place… like it's back to normal."

"If there's nobody around, Ho-oh could check," Lyra suggested, proffering the Ultra Ball containing her most valuable Pokémon. Leaf cocked her head thoughtfully.

"Wellll…" she said slowly. Her eyes glazed over for a moment, and then she shook her head. "There's one more here, one more that I want you to meet. A certain special Pokémon. But I have to warn you now, he's… unusual."

"Unusual we can handle," Crystal said with a shrug. "It's evil I'm worried about."

"Far from it," Leaf promised with a smile. "It's okay. Guys, meet… Mewtwo."

"Mew… two?" Daisy asked, and then gasped as a creature materialized before them. It was somewhat humanoid in form, but feline in features; pawlike hands and feet, nonhuman leg joints, protruding ears. It was mostly white, but with a pudgy purple tail and purple belly. It also had piercing violet eyes, eyes that went right through Lyra's head and burned into the stone behind her.

"Mewtwo," Leaf said softly, "This is Lyra, Kris and Daisy."

Mewtwo nodded. _I know. I saw in your mind. You trust them implicitly. So I will as well._ Mewtwo didn't speak; his voice simply arrived in their minds unencumbered. Daisy looked shaken, but both Lyra and Crystal had experienced this kind of thing before.

"Pleased to meet you, Mewtwo," Lyra said formally. "You must be a very powerful psychic."

_Designed to be the best._

"Mewtwo was created by scientists on Cinnabar Island," Leaf explained softly. "Red befriended him, and so did I, after… anyway, he's modest. He _is_ the best, and I invited him to come help us."

"Thank you, Mewtwo," Crystal said with a smile.

_It is nothing, _Mewtwo insisted, somehow vividly reminding Lyra of Silver when accused of good deeds. _What is in there… feels wrong. Even _I _can feel it. _

"Mewtwo, is there anyone else here?" Leaf asked. Mewtwo shook his head.

_I feel no other consciousnesses._ _Nothing will see what you plan to unleash._

"Fabulous," Lyra said, tossing the prized Heavy Ball into the air and unleashing Ho-oh in a flash of light. It was stronger than the normal flash of a pokéball; light was streaming from the majestic bird's wings, lighting up the area as it settled itself regally onto a rock next to Lyra. The glow dimmed down somewhat when it folded its wings, but still made the area almost daylike.

"Wow," Leaf breathed, visibly awed. Well, she had talked about her obsession with legendary Pokémon before- at length. Daisy was also staring open-mouthed at Ho-oh, and even Crystal, who'd seen it before, couldn't help staring.

"Ho-oh," Lyra said, reaching up to stroke its beak- she had to stand on tiptoe, and even then the bird had to bow its head, as Ho-oh was nearly four metres tall- "you're carved all over these ruins. Do you know about them?"

Ho-oh cawed, but somehow, everyone understood what it was saying. _Yes. Long ago, this is where humans were first seen._

"You mean this is the oldest human settlement in Johto?" Leaf asked, a little faintly. She didn't sound ill this time, though; it was more a state of reverence. Lyra was careful to speak respectfully too; she'd defeated and captured Ho-oh, but she hadn't deluded herself that she controlled it.

_Oldest in Johto, yes. One of the oldest in the world. They would have stayed here forever, I think, were it not for what they unleashed._

"What they unleashed?" Lyra said thoughtfully. "You mean like the Unown? They were awakened recently…"

_No. It is… not from here,_ Ho-oh said, and somehow its cawing sounded a little uncertain. _I could not tell you whether it has power or not. Whether it is alive or dead, good or evil… such concepts do not apply to it as it does to those of us from this place. But it was drawn to humans. So you fled, and we sealed it._

"We?" Crystal asked, plucking three Ultra Balls from her belt. "Like the Legendary Dogs?"

_No. I had not yet revived the three at this time. This was long before they were even born as their old selves. I refer to the Words._

"Words?" Leaf asked. The image of an Unown flashed in all of their heads; from the glowing of his eyes, Mewtwo had plucked it straight from Ho-oh's mind and planted it into theirs. "The Unown? I thought… I saw Unown, when I was there."

_The Words can travel between dimensions. They followed you_. Ho-oh cocked its head at the uniformly shocked expressions on the girls' faces. _This perplexes you. Why else did you think they were there?_

"But we thought… it was the Unown who…" Leaf shook her head, visibly collecting her thoughts.

_They tried to bring you back, to reseal the hole that was opened by your presence alone, the creature that they have guarded for millennia. _

"The creature?" Lyra asked. "There's something _else_ down there?"

_Indeed. Something that the fear of which pervaded your cultural consciousness for millennia, so deeply that fear of it was attached to the Words which guarded it. And for millennia, that was enough to keep you away. If only you had acquiesced to that fear, and not opened the door merely to see what lay behind._

-P-

"Check it out, Az," Gold said, examining the green sphere from several angles. It seemed to glow slightly. "What _is_ this thing?"

"That be the Jade Orb," the old lady explained. If long-married couples often looked similar to each other, these two must have been together a good century. She even had a matching Chimecho floating over her shoulder. "It controls the powers of air. The Ruby Orb controls the powers of the sea, and the Sapphire Orb the powers of the land."

"You guard them?" Gold asked curiously, looking over the red and blue spheres sitting next to the green one in an ornate chest. They were also glowing faintly, not as strongly as the Jade Orb.

"Our family has for centuries," The old man confirmed, looking down fondly at the orbs. "Someday, our granddaughter shall take up this task. But for now, knowledge of them belongs only to a select few."

"And that includes me because…?" Gold asked, a little incredulously. Whatever these things were, they sounded kinda powerful; did they show them to every random kid that came by?

"The spheres be glowing recently," The old lady said. "And ever stronger did the Jade Orb glow as ye climbed the mountain. You fought past the ghosts honourably; we think ye be one whom the Orbs like, one who could hold them safely."

"We have but one grandchild," the old man added. "If the Orbs should like a person's soul, we see no harm in letting that person know of their existence, if they be of good heart and willing to protect them if needs be. Should they be used by those of foul souls, the very world would be in peril."

"Backup guard duty, huh?" Gold summarized, but he still bowed his head respectfully before closing the chest. "I'm honoured. Really. These things are clearly pretty valuable."

"The ghosts judged ye as good, as did the Orbs," the old lady said, smiling. "We trust ye. Here, have some tea before ye go."

"Hey, thanks!" Gold said, reaching for the steaming cup, but he dropped it in surprise as both of the Chimecho suddenly shrieked and hid down the back of their trainer's yukata, shivering in fear. At the same moment, Az, who normally disliked being in his pokéball, actually jumped inside of it.

"What the… hide the Orbs!" The old man commanded, stepping towards the door, the back of his yukata visibly shaking with the Chimecho. Gold looked at the old lady, who nodded at the chest. Gold went over and picked up the Jade Orb, burying it at the bottom of his bag, and reaching for the other two just as the old man poked his head out of the door.

"Where be the ghosts… ho!" He called. "What's wrong with ye, boy? Ye hurt?"

"That boy ain't walkin' right," his wife opined, peering over his shoulder. "Like…" then she gasped, cutting off entirely, before both of them collapsed with a _thump_.

"Who the hell-?" Gold yelled, jumping to his feet and grabbing a pokéball. He froze, and stared.

"Power where ball? Ball here place?"

-P-

_There is nothing there,_ Mewtwo told them, sounding as perplexed as the rest of them felt, and had felt since Ho-oh's strange revelations. The Unown weren't the ones who'd kidnapped Leaf- they were trying to _save_ her? They were guarding whatever took her? And what they were guarding was something that unsettled even Pokémon of unbelievable power, like Ho-oh? Something that even the Unown found bizarre?

"The chamber's empty?" Leaf said, voicing their confusion. Ho-oh walked straight in; the cavernous nature of the halls was suddenly explained in view of the huge bird walking serenely through the place, clearly familiar with it. It was also clearly uncomfortable walking rather than flying, like most birds, but had expressed an intent to re-enter the tunnels. Leaf felt that it was almost as confused as they were about what was going on, and just as determined to stop it.

She began to tense up as they walked quietly through the halls, the walls now completely divested of Unown; they were getting near to where… whatever had happened, happened. Daisy put her hand on Leaf's shoulder.

"Leaf, if you're uncomfortable…" she said softly. Leaf shook her head.

"I have to," she said firmly, to herself as much as Daisy. Crystal and Lyra both glanced over, before turning their eyes back to the walls that were illuminated by Ho-oh's glow. Mewtwo silently walked with them, eyes closed as he used his psychic powers to see much further than mere eyes could.

_It is gone,_ Ho-oh cawed as they reached the last place Leaf remembered. _It has left this place. You may enter safely. _

"Wow," Lyra breathed as they entered a room that made the previous cavernous halls look positively cramped. Even when Ho-oh opened its wings, illuminating the entire room, the ceiling was high enough to be shrouded in shadow. There were elaborate carvings all over the walls, not Unown like the rest of the Ruins but real pictograms.

"What's that setup?" Crystal asked, indicating some statue or carving in the centre of the room. Leaf jogged over to it- it was set a long way from any walls, making it difficult to get near to, which Leaf increasingly suspected was probably the intent- but skidded to a halt several feet away as she realized what it was.

"It's an ancient ritual funerary podium," she gasped, her voice echoing around the room. "This is a tomb."

-P-

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	15. Chapter XIV

_**Chapter XIV**_

_Someone is here_.

The girls jerked out of their doze at Mewtwo's voice cutting urgently through their minds. Lyra looked back at the entrance to the cavern, which suddenly seemed a long way behind them. All of them had followed Leaf's mad dash to the centre, stopping a few feet behind her at her pronouncement.

A tomb- for what?

"I'll go check it out," Lyra said, turning and running back for the entrance.

"I'll come with you!" Crystal called, running after her. "Best not to go alone here."

_No need for undue alarm. I recognize the mind. It is the boy who was here before._

"The boy who was here before?" Lyra mused aloud, but she and Crystal were already out of the cavern and running down the halls, and they were probably out of hearing range. Crystal grinned brightly and winked at her.

"Maybe it's Blue!" she suggested. "He came here after Leaf vanished, right?"

Lyra would never admit to the entire extent to which this idea relaxed and cheered her. Blue was safe, he was here!

"Come on, Girafarig!" she called, releasing her Pokémon. "Just in case…"

Not much further down the tunnel, Girafarig suddenly cried out in alarm and skidded to a halt, just as a Sneasel leapt out of the darkness, claws bared. Lyra and Crystal also halted in confusion, grabbing reflexively for their Pokémon; Sneasel weren't native to this area, preferring cold climates, so-?

"Hold it, Sneasel," a familiar voice called sharply. Lyra swallowed the surge of disappointment and peered through the gloom at the approaching figure.

"Silver?" Crystal said in surprise. "What're you doing here?"

"I was going to ask the same thing," he said offhandedly, petting Sneasel's ears as it hopped up onto his shoulder. "I'm here on behalf of the Dragon Clan."

"The Dragon Clan? Why?" Lyra asked curiously. He narrowed his eyes.

"Whether or not I tell you depends on why _you're_ here." Lyra rolled her eyes, but Crystal cut off any argument before it could inevitably begin.

"We're here with Leaf Ketchum," she explained. "Trying to ascertain precisely what's down here."

"Leaf Ketchum… she was one of the ones who vanished down here, right?" Silver asked. "Reappeared on Cinnabar Island?" Lyra and Crystal nodded. "I see. Well, _I'm_ here to ascertain whether or not It's _still_ down here, though I doubt it."

"You'd be right," Lyra said, turning back to the cavern. Silver was aware of her possession of Ho-oh, though Mewtwo might get awkward. Still, the way he'd spoken, it sounded like he was well aware of what was down here- or the Dragon Clan was, at least. "The chamber's empty… though we're not sure what was in it."

"I can hazard an informed guess," Silver said dryly. "Though I'd like to be forewarned who or what's in there now. Leaf Ketchum's in there?" A memory stirred in Lyra's mind, or a premonition, but she didn't spare time to think about it, more worried about the others in the chamber.

"Examining the carvings on the walls," Crystal confirmed. "Daisy Oak's with her, too. Ho-oh's in here with us. And, eh…" she was visibly struggling to figure out a way to explain Mewtwo, as was Lyra, when they heard his voice in their minds.

_You repaired your mind remarkably quickly. I would warn you that it is still vulnerable at this time, however._

"Mewtwo?" Lyra asked as they stepped back into the chamber and Ho-oh's all-encompassing glow, staring at the semi-feline psychic where he hovered protectively around Leaf and Daisy, who were indeed scrutinizing the pictograms on the walls. Ho-oh stood serenely in the middle of the room, next to the podium with what was now recognizably a sarcophagus, flapping its wings lazily and preening.

Silver's eyes widened visibly as he laid eyes on Mewtwo. "It's you!" He cried. "The thing that saved me!"

"Wait, what?" Leaf said in confusion. "Who is this? Mewtwo, you know him?"

"Leaf, this is Silver," Crystal introduced him. "He's a friend of ours, but…" she looked from Silver to Mewtwo. "You know each other? Saved you?"

Mewtwo nodded. _I was investigating the Ruins myself shortly before you were found, Leaf. His mind had been shattered in a matter not dissimilar to yours, though to a lesser extent. I managed to repair most of the damage, though he seems to have done well with what's left. He knows much about the thing that was in here. _

"You were here?" Lyra asked in surprise. "You _know_ about the thing?"

"I do," Silver said with a nod, striding over to where Leaf and Daisy had been examining a pictogram that seemed to have been scraped out. There was just a mess of scratches on the wall, with prone figures lying beneath it, appearing to be clutching their heads. "The Dragon Clan are very old. They can trace their ancestry back to the days when they were part of the clan that lived here. However, they made a vow never to return to this place, so no member of the clan can come here. I've not been formally inducted into the clan yet, so I can."

"Yet?" Lyra asked, a little off-track. "They're going to induct you? Congratulations!"

"Yeah, thanks," Silver said gruffly, before turning back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, they… we… have certain theories about what this thing is. I shared some of them with Mewtwo before…"

_I still do not fully comprehend them. But then, there is much I do not understand, so perhaps it is easier for you._

"Can you tell us?" Leaf asked, slumping down to sit with her back leaning against the wall. Daisy crouched next to her, looking questioningly at her, evidently worried about her health, but Leaf waved her off. Crystal and Lyra also sat down, Silver sinking down cross-legged onto the stone. Mewtwo remained standing, though Lyra was beginning to wonder if that was the right word as some time ago she'd noticed that he was in fact levitating a few centimetres off the floor at all times. Ho-oh didn't move, but did glance over at them, clearly listening. "What this thing is? We thought it was the Unown, but…"

"Ho-oh told us that the Unown were guardians," Lyra continued. "Not what was sealed, but what was doing the sealing. Question is, what were they sealing? What was…" she glanced around, a little nervously. "What was _entombed_ down here?"

"Eh, it looks like a tomb, but that was just a little fall to symbolism on the part of the humans that were living here," Silver said flippantly. "They needed walls to carve the Unown into, to act as the seal, so they set this place up like a tomb. Like they could kill what they were trying to seal."

_Foolishness,_ Ho-oh cawed. _But they were right to leave. It grew strong, feverent around humans. It hated Pokémon as much as we hated it._

"If Pokémon hated it, why were the Unown sealing it?" Crystal asked thoughtfully. "The wild Pokémon all left this area when this thing awoke or whatever, and migration patterns even changed so that Pokémon wouldn't have to fly over it."

_Only Unown could seal it, for the obvious reason._ Everybody looked at Ho-oh, who didn't deign to elaborate, then at Silver, to see if he knew what the "obvious reason" was.

"The Unown can travel between dimensions," he said boredly, like it was the most obvious thing ever. "So what better to seal something from another dimension?"

"Another _dimension_?" Leaf asked incredulously. "You're saying this thing's from an _alternate reality_?"

"A what?" Daisy asked, looking bemused. Lyra exchanged a look and a shrug with Crystal. Silver glanced at Leaf, then sat back to let her explain.

"Alternate realities," Leaf explained. "It's difficult to explain, but… think of it this way. Every time you make a decision, there's a possibility that you made the other choice. An alternate reality, or alternate universe, is one where you did make the other decision. There are millions, billions of alternate realities, made of endless alternate decisions. How different these realities are varies; some, it's identical aside from Lyra wearing one ponytail instead of two. Some, it's so different that the very physical laws on which the world is built on differ; a creature born in one of these realities would be physically unable to survive in this world, and wouldn't look like anything we could recognize or comprehend…" she trailed off, her face slackening into an expression of absolute astonishment. "Oh. _Oh_."

"Exactly," Silver said with a nod. "Somehow, something came through here from another reality, one which is based on physical laws completely different from our own. We know that now, anyway, with contemporary science. Back then, nobody understood what the hell it was. Figured it was from somewhere else, though, and called it the Lost One or the Missing One. It could mesh with human minds, or at least tried, but it tended to break them. It couldn't mesh with Pokémon at all. It hated them and they hated it. So…"

_So I used much of my power to lock it away, in this tomb the humans built for it,_ Ho-oh interjected. _The Words can maintain the seal, but only if there aren't any human minds for it to feed on. The Missing One likes humans better than Pokémon. I could not say why…_

"_We humans need to walk with them. We leave here for the sake of them,_" Leaf groaned. "So _that's_ what those odd messages meant. Humans thought that it wasn't safe to be here until they were more like Pokémon, until they had acquired whatever immunity the Pokémon had that we didn't…"

_But you forgot,_ Ho-oh said scornfully. _You forgot why you left this place. Admittedly, you did anticipate this, hence why you built these caverns over the tomb. You hoped that enough forgetful fools would take it as a warning, and stay away._

"I this we underestimated our own capacity for curiosity," Lyra groaned, planting her face in her palm. "Dammit. It had the opposite effect. We dug down here to see what all the fuss was about."

"Which doesn't answer the question," Daisy pointed out, "of where it is now or what it's doing."

"Did it ever escape before?" Lyra asked Ho-oh. The great bird nodded.

_Once, it found a mind that could hold it without shattering entirely. It drove the girl to acts of great destruction. It is somewhat pitiful in how afraid and confused it is of this world, but the pity is mitigated by how it seeks to absolve these fears through destruction._

"That's probably what it's planning now," Silver said. "It's found another mind to hide it, and no doubt these days it'll be able to find better ways of committing mass destruction than setting fire to a few huts."

"It's in someone's head?" Leaf said, paling palpably. Silver looked taken aback by her expression, then, to her visible surprise, he offered her a reassuring smile and shook his head.

"Not yours," he said. "I already saw who it was. Looked into the eyes, too, which is why your pal here found me on the ground with my mind dribbling out of my ears. The eyes are the window to the soul and all."

"Was it someone you recognized?" Crystal asked. Silver nodded, smile fading.

"The Missing One's new victim is Oak," he said. "Blue Oak."

Crystal's arms wrapped around Lyra's shoulders just in time, as it felt like the ground had dropped from under her feet, leaving her floating and disconnected. Daisy hit the ground before Leaf could catch her, fainted dead away.

-P-

Gold came around in fits and starts. Thinking felt like wading through… that stuff… like sand and water… urgh. Really tough. Really bright, too. Just white. White…?

Where had he been? Think, brain. He had been… with Crystal. At Lavaridge. No, then she had to go home… so he was… at Fortree… then he heard about… Mt Pyre…

Yeah. He'd climbed Mt Pyre. Really misty. Was that what the white was? Mist? No, it wasn't mist. Ceiling. Walls. A room. A white room. And he was in a bed. Was it a hotel or something? On the top of Mt Pyre? Didn't seem like the best place for it…

His head was _throbbing_. He reached up to touch it and something tugged on his arm. He looked down. Something was coming out of his arm. Something long and thin. Muzzily, he looked along the long, thin thing. It was clear. Attached to a clear bag on a pole. One of those thing people in hospital had, wunnit? He reached up to his head with his other hand. Felt smooth and papery. Bandages? Was he a mummy? No, wait, there was the thing people in hospital had. Was he a people in hospital?

Hospital. That made sense. All white and clean, even the sheets. And the… IV, yeah, that's what it was. And his head was bandaged up. Someone thumped him a good one somewhere. Maybe… on top of Mt Pyre…

"Oh holy crap."

He jerked upright, wincing as his skull protested at the sudden movement. That was it! He'd been with that old couple, and then they… oh shit… they were… by…

"Where the hell's my Pokégear?" he moaned, looking around frantically. His bag was visible by the side of his bed, but he was in a hospital robe. Where were his clothes? In the bedside cabinet, maybe? He started riffling through it when the nurse walked in.

"Oh, you're up," she said, smiling in that pleasant way that the nurses _always_ did, like their default expression. "We just located your parent's number on your Pokégear and called them. You're in a hospital in Lilycove. They should be here within a couple of days, there's a ferry from Johto coming in the day after tomorrow."

"Where is my Pokégear?" Gold asked, trying to stay calm and not sound like he was hysterical or mental or anything. "I've got somebody else I need to call."

-P-

"I'm sorry, Lyra," Crystal kept repeating, almost crying. "I thought he was okay… I really thought… I just didn't get a proper look at him…"

"Be grateful for that," Silver said shortly. "Especially not the eyes. Otherwise you'd be in a gibbering heap right now. If you were lucky."

"We have to find him," Lyra gasped, on the verge of tears or hyperventilation herself. "We have to find him, try and bring him back here. Maybe it can be taken out, resealed, something…"

"Can that be done?" Leaf asked. She _was_ crying, and the only reason Daisy wasn't was that she was still lying in a dead faint in Leaf's grasp. Mewtwo was standing protectively behind Leaf, one hand over Daisy's head, attempting to calm and revive her. Leaf looked imploringly at Ho-oh.

"Before…" Lyra croaked. "You said a girl was controlled by… the… the Missing One before. In the end… was she saved?"

Bird's faces are not the most expressive, but Lyra's heart sank to join her stomach before it had even opened its beak.

_It could not be removed from where it took root in her mind,_ Ho-oh cawed softly. _It only left her body when the people tied her up and burned her to ashes. And even then, it did not die._

_-P-_

_Anyone who's familiar at all with the Cthulu Mythos should have a pretty good idea at what I'm getting at with the creature. For those who aren't, the Cthulu are a race created by sci-fi writer HP Lovecraft. They could not be killed because they weren't alive in a way we could recognize. To put it metaphorically, say our universe is a Nintendo Wii, and creatures from our universe are Wii games or Virtual Console games. But the Cthulu are a PS3 game. They don't really fit if you try to put them into the system, and things are going to go very badly wrong if you try to make it work. The creature is not a Cthulu, but that's the general idea of what I'm going for._

_**Is there anything like the Jade Orb in the newer games?**__ Well, you can get the Sapphire or Ruby Orbs, and then the Jade Orb, from Professor Oak in HeartGold/SoulSilver, to summon Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza to the Embedded Tower. I don't think it appears in Diamond, Pearl or Platinum, though._

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation.


	16. Chapter XV

_**Chapter XV**_

Silver had no idea how long they'd spent down in the Ruins; he'd arrive not long before midday, and the girls had evidently been there longer. But by the time they'd left- by the time they'd talked everything out, gotten over their varying fits of crying and catatonia, and talked everything out again- it was getting dark, the sun almost completely set.

Crystal seemed to be the least rattled, not to say that she wasn't extremely frightened and extremely angry. The girl who'd fainted right out was apparently Blue Oak's sister Daisy, and Leaf Ketchum was an old friend of theirs, and probably understood exactly what the Missing One could do even better than Silver did. Lyra's reaction had really surprised him, though. She'd looked like it was only by a very narrow margin that she wasn't fainting herself, and was still looking distant, dazed, like she hadn't quite reconnected with reality. Crystal had a hand on her arm to guide her, since she looked like she might walk into a wall otherwise. Silver hadn't realized that she knew Blue Oak, and seeing her so rattled was a little unnerving; she was usually completely calm and composed.

She hadn't reacted at all to Ho-oh's pronouncement that the last host of the Missing One had only been separated in death. Silver had already known, so he'd been watching the others' reactions; Daisy had remained mercifully unconscious, Leaf had broken into full-on sobs, and Crystal had looked in concern at Lyra, but Lyra hadn't reacted further. She seemed about as conscious as Daisy had been, really, but whether she'd not acknowledged the information or if she had and just didn't want to accept it yet, Silver couldn't tell. He never could read that girl.

The second they got into the open air, he flipped open his Pokégear, checked for a signal and then, seeing one, phoned Lance.

"Lance, we have a major problem," he said quietly, not wanting the girls to overhear him. He _could_ speak quietly, he realized, because the strange background screeching that was usually omnipresent in the Ruins was gone. He thought of the Unown vanished from the wall. "The Missing One… I've confirmed that it has a host. And what's worse, it's no longer in the Ruins. I've got an eyewitness that saw him leaving Johto via a ferry in Olivine."

"_A ferry?_" Lance asked, sounding alarmed. "_Where the hell is it going? What's it planning to do?_"

"I've been told that destruction tends to be high on its agenda," Silver said dryly. "I'm not sure how much of our world it comprehends- probably about as much of its world that we understand- but this is worrying. Kinda suggests that it's planning something."

"_This is officially a situation._"

"It gets worse. I didn't mention this before, but I had to confirm it; it isn't just any guy it's taken root in the mind of. It's got Blue Oak."

There was a long, pregnant pause before Lance sighed. "_Well, shit. He was one of the first ones I was hoping to recruit on this. Former League Champion and all._"

"Lyra Hearton's already involved via Leaf Ketchum," Silver informed him. "Still, you might want to contact Cynthia and Steven Stone."

"_I'm planning to, since we don't know what region Blue… It… went to. I'll leave it up to their discretion whether they tell their Elites, Leaders, or everybody what's going on, but my primary concern is finding Blue… Did you talk to the Kimono Girls?_"

"It has been rendered unnecessary," Silver said circuitously. "Safe to say that Ho-oh is aware of the situation. I'm intending to go to Olivine Port and find out if anyone can confirm which ferry It got onto." He glanced over at Lyra, Leaf, Daisy and Crystal, who were doing that girl thing of all talking at once and still knowing what everyone else was saying. There was a lot of nodding, though, which he took to mean that a consensus was being reached. Crystal stepped aside for a moment, talking into her Pokégear. "I suspect that Leaf Ketchum will be coming too. Lyra Hearton too, as I mentioned. Crystal Christie and Daisy Oak are here too, though the latter's in a bit of a state…"

"_The more the merrier,_" Lance sighed. "_I'll go inform the Master, but now this is a threat to people and Pokémon everywhere, and that makes it a League matter. Better call an emergency conference. It'll be fun explaining why Blue's absent…_"

"I'll keep you posted," Silver promised, hanging up moments before Crystal did, sporting roughly the same expression Lyra had upon hearing that Blue Oak was possessed by an eldritch abomination from another dimension.

"You're going to the port at Olivine, right?" Lyra said, which indicated that she was listening to his conversation as well as Crystal, Leaf and Daisy. How did women _do_ that? "We're coming with. Crystal and I need to catch a ferry to Hoenn, anyway. Gold's been hospitalized. He was assaulted, ended up with a head injury."

"Something got through that thick skull of his?" Silver automatically deadpanned, as a diversionary tactic. He still hadn't managed to replace the poker face that usually kept his emotions 100% under his control, and he sure as hell didn't want to look _worried_ about _Gold_.

"I'm going with you to the Olivine Port, and wherever Blue went," Leaf said firmly. "He was only here because he came looking for me. Besides, he's one of my oldest friends. No _way_ I'm letting this thing destroy him."

"I'm coming too," said Daisy, to some visible surprise from the others, but looking determined. "He's _my_ baby brother. Besides, I'm not much of a fighter, I'll admit, but if it comes to a fight, I think my Blissey's exceptional resilience and healing abilities will be much appreciated." She held up a sole Friend Ball. Lyra nodded thoughtfully.

"We'll meet up with you guys again after making sure Gold's not brain-dead, alright?" she said. Crystal nodded in agreement.

"How will you tell?" Silver couldn't resist asking.

-P-

"How're you holding up, Daisy?" Lyra asked sympathetically, handing a plate to the older woman. They were in the diner of Olivine Port, waiting for the head of security to get back to them. He was going through the records of passes used- for the Missing One to get a ferry, it would have to use Blue's ferry pass. Such records were normally highly confidential, but Lance had already sent out a bulletin informing the law forces and travel authorities that if Blue Oak was seen, the League was to be informed. It was light on detail but authoritative enough to get a League Representative- such as, say, the reigning Champion- access to whatever she needed to track Blue down.

It would take a while, though, since several ferries went in and out of Olivine every day. So they were killing time by catching a little late dinner in the diner before talking to the portmaster again. There were no late-night ferries, but Lyra and Crystal would be able to catch the first Slateport ferry in the morning, and Silver, Leaf and Daisy would be able to get a ferry to wherever Blue was headed.

"I'll be fine," Daisy said, picking at her food a little. "It's a lot to take in…" She glanced over at Leaf. "But still, I have to help my brother in any way I can. Besides, Leaf's been through much worse, and she's bounced back…"

"I'm not sure whether she's bounced back or just good at pretending like she has," Lyra said, shrugging. "But she's… she's always been strong."

"I don't think that's the only reason she's anything approaching chipper today," Crystal said, looking over at the girl in question, who was sitting at the bar rather than their table, deep in conversation with Silver about the Ruins of Alph. "They really hit it off, didn't they?"

"She's found someone to gabble with about her Legendary obsession," Daisy laughed. "Or at least, somebody who can keep up…"

"Never knew Silver had a thing for myths and legends," Crystal mused, watching the chattering pair surreptitiously. "But, being honest, I never have known that much about his hobbies or interests or anything. He's never even said where he's from or anything…" Lyra noted how she carefully avoided saying that she didn't know.

"That's true," she agreed. "The only times I've seen him, mostly, we've been battling or talking about training or things that are going on…"

"Same," Crystal nodded. "Or really, I end up watching while he and Gold fight. Those two are battle crazy…" she shrugged. "Well, whatever. She's lucked into meeting him after his jerkass phase. For all we know, he's nice now."

"No!" Lyra gasped, hand overdramatically over her heart. Daisy smiled a little, but she didn't look up to giggling for a while. Lyra didn't feel like it either, really, but she hated being a downer. She didn't want to let the others believe that things would go badly, that there was little hope, because if she did then she might just start to believe it herself.

Lyra's Pokégear rang. She flipped it open, putting it on speakerphone. "Hello?"

"_Miss Hearton?_" a voice said. "_This is the head of Olivine Port security. We located the pass of the young man you were looking for. About five days ago, he got our weekly ferry to Lilycove city. Next one goes day after tomorrow. We couldn't tell you where he went from there, you'd have to talk to the portmaster in Lilycove about it._"

"Thank you very much," Lyra said, hanging up. She glanced over at Silver and Leaf. "Guys. Hey, Mythbusters?" The two broke off in their rapid conversation to swivel around, Silver returning to his default expression of glaring. "Blue got on a ferry to Lilycove. Next ferry goes day after tomorrow."

"Small world," Silver said shortly. "I'll wait for that ferry, then. I can talk to the staff on it, see if any of them remember him."

"We're going to get the Slateport ferry in the morning," Lyra said, glancing at Crystal, who nodded in agreement. "We'll fly to Lilycove from there, visit Gold, meet up with you. What about you two?"

"I'll go with Silver," Leaf said. "I don't really know your friend, I'd rather investigate Blue's whereabouts. Daisy, are you coming?"

"I'll come with you," Daisy replied. Her fists were clenching unconsciously. "I'm not going home until I find my brother."

Leaf nodded solemnly. "Got it. We'll see you two in Lilycove, then."

-P-

"He's just woken up," the nurse said, stepping out into the hallway where Lyra and Crystal were waiting. "He's been sleeping a lot. He got hit pretty hard."

"No, he's just lazy," Lyra said, rolling her eyes, but relieved that Gold was conscious, at least.

"Can we see him?" Crystal asked, dancing on the edge of panic. The nurse nodded and stepped back to let them enter the room.

It was kind of disturbing to see Gold with his head wrapped up in bandages, a few spikes of black hair poking out of random gaps in the bandages at even crazier angles than usual. He glazed blearily at them, looking worryingly unfocused, but then he grinned brightly.

"Hey, Lyra, Kris," he greeted them. "Man, are _you_ two a sight for concussed eyes!"

"Too bad your _jaw_ didn't break," Lyra muttered jokingly as Crystal flopped down in the chair next to Gold's bed, visibly relaxing. She held his hand, rubbing it a little, and he squeezed back. Lyra just leaned against the wall, rolling her eyes a little at her friends' little lovey-dovey display, but still a little on edge.

"What _happened_, Gold?" Crystal asked. "I got called by a nurse who told me that you were admitted to hospital with a _head injury_!"

"Yeah, he whacked me a good one," Gold said, rubbing his head gingerly. His usual cheeky grin faded slightly.

"Your dad should get here tomorrow, that's when the next ferry to Lilycove is," Lyra told him. "Anyway, who hit you? Do you know? What happened?"

"Yeah, I…" he glanced at the door, which was a little ajar. Lyra nudged it closed carefully, glancing over solemnly at Gold. "Okay. I was checking out this Mt Pyre place. Like the Pokémon graveyards in Lavender Town, y'know? Only, an entire mountain of graves. And ghosts everywhere. Freaky place. Anyway, when I got to the top, I met this old couple. They said the mountain was sort of a test, for trainers with "good hearts" or something. Only strong trainers could pass…"

"So what shortcut did you take?" Lyra snarked. He stuck his tongue out at her, which she took to be a good sign. If he was still reacting childishly to her teasing, then all was still well with his brain, or as well as his brain ever was. Crystal giggled at their banter, a little giddily. She'd been worried sick ever since the call.

"Anyway, they showed me why the whole place was a huge secret. There were these three things there. Called them the Jade Orb, the Ruby Orb and the Sapphire Orb. Three guesses what they looked like. Supposedly, they control some've the most powerful Pokémon in Hoenn. The old folks were saying that they're always on the lookout for good trainers, since they'll need someone to look after the Orbs after them, and since their only relative, a granddaughter, is an Elite in Hoenn, they want a few more options. They were just showing me the Orbs when suddenly their Chimecho freaked out. So'd Az, she jumped straight into her pokéball. The old couple started muttering about the ghosts being restless, said something was coming and I had to hide the Orbs and run. Then they both collapsed, and…" he trailed off, rubbing his head a little with his other hand. "I dunno… I saw who it was, but… But I don't think it was really… I mean, I really don't think he would…"

"Who?" Lyra asked, trepidation rising. "Gold, _who was it_?"

"It looked like…" Gold took a deep breath. "Blue. Blue Oak. But that… can't be right, can it…?"

"Oh, no," Crystal gasped, looking quickly at Lyra, who felt her stomach find a new depth to plummet to. Gold looked stricken at her expression and glanced worriedly at Crystal, like looking for help. "Was he acting… weird?"

"Yeah… yeah," Gold said hastily. "I mean, it looked like him and all, but he was talking funny, in this weird, broken way. Like something that'd heard speech before and was trying to mimic it, but still didn't really grasp some of the basics, you know? And there was something wrong with his eyes…" he closed his eyes briefly, and then looked at Lyra. "What colour are Blue's eyes?"

"They're green," Lyra said, before actually thinking about the question and blushing. "Wait, why're you asking me?"

"You know Blue better than we do," Crystal said diplomatically. She might have been trying to escape teasing over her and Gold.

"Well, anyway, they weren't green," Gold said, "or any other colour, really. I mean, not like _I_ was staring into his eyes or nothin', but you watch someone when they're talking, don't you? And I only made eye contact for the barest moment, looked straight away, but that moment was… odd... There was something… _wrong_…" He shuddered a little. "Even when I closed my eyes, I could still see it. There wasn't any colour, like I said. No pupils, no irises, no real form, just… a mess… and it scrambled my brain until I couldn't remember anything, not who or what I was…" he rubbed his scalp again. "Then he whacked me harder than a Hitmonchan."

"You looked into his _eyes_?" Crystal said in a panic. Gold squeezed her hand, trying to calm her down.

"Just for a moment," he said. "Just a fraction of a second. Then he looked away… I was still frozen, though. Then he whacked me, and…" He looked crestfallen. "I think he took the Orbs. But I mean, that doesn't really sound like Blue Oak, does it? Do you know what's going on?"

"It's a long story," Lyra sighed. Gold nodded at the IV.

"And I'm a captive audience," he quipped. "So what's been happening in the wide world of weird?"

-P-

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	17. Chapter XVI

_**Chapter XVI**_

"He was definitely here," Silver said, walking into the room Leaf and Daisy were sharing. "A few staff members remember somebody who matches his description, though they say they only really saw him embarking and disembarking. Kept his head down, didn't look at anyone or speak to anyone. They don't remember seeing him in the canteen or anything."

Daisy rubbed her forehead. "I wonder if he's alright," she sighed heavily. Silver and Leaf looked at her like she was cracking up. "_Aside_ from being possessed by an abomination from another dimension," she clarified, "I just have to wonder how well that thing understands the concept of eating and drinking. Blue tends to skip meals _anyway_ when he's training hard, but I'm just starting to worry that he's going to starve before we can figure out a way to get that thing out of him."

"Good point," Leaf said, looking questioningly at Silver, who shrugged.

"I couldn't say," he commented. "Since it's settled into Blue's mind, it might be able to comprehend the world through him. Clearly it's grasped the concept of ferries. I couldn't say if its lack of presence in the canteen or similar is due to not noticing or understanding hunger, or just the desire to keep a low profile. It's also had a good couple of millennia at least to muse over its experiences in our world last time, so…"

"I see…" Daisy reached over and hugged her Blissey, who was sitting next to her and sang comfortingly to her. After a moment, Daisy dropped off. Leaf nodded her head towards the door, indicating to Silver to leave Daisy to rest for a while.

"She's not been eating or sleeping properly herself," Leaf sighed as she clicked the door gently shut behind them. "She's been so stressed and worried. She and Blue bicker a lot, but he _is_ her brother…"

"Your older brother was Red Ketchum, right?" Silver asked. Leaf felt a pang, but it was a familiar little pain, one that would probably never stop being associated with her brother's name. She just nodded. "Sorry. I had to ask. I've heard of him, of course. I'd wanted to meet him someday- what trainer didn't? Still, that was a low, filthy way for Team Rocket to get rid of him. Scum…" a tremendous level of venom flooded his previously level voice at the mention of the now disbanded crime syndicate. Leaf glanced at his expression.

"I take it you're not a fan of their work either?" she said dryly. Silver snorted.

"Can't think of anything I hate more," he growled, before pausing, closing his eyes for a second and regaining his composure. "Though the Missing One's definitely ranking not far below."

They both stopped talking as a waiter rolled a tray past, bowing to them as he passed. "We should probably move out of the hallway," Leaf observed, having had to flatten herself against the wall to let the trolley past. Silver nodded and opened the door behind him, which lead to his room, across the hall.

"Thank you," Leaf said as he held open the door for him. "You're more polite than I thought. I got the impression from Lyra that you were kind of a jerk." She slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, geez, sorry, I should not have said that…"

To her surprise, Silver laughed. "Four or five years ago, yeah. I like to think I've grown up since then." He sat down on the bed, across from the table which Leaf sat down at. "Our relationship's stuck in the past sometimes. It's the same with Gold."

"Sometimes it's like that with people you've known a long time," Leaf said, rolling her eyes. "If Daisy wasn't so worried about Blue right now, she'd be babying me like hell. Least Blue doesn't treat me like a kid anymore…"

"You like this guy or something?" Silver asked bluntly. Leaf stared for a moment, and then laughed. Silver raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Okay, if you were right, that _would_ be kind of a jerky thing to ask," she giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "Wow. No. Okay, I can see where you'd get the idea from, but no. I've known him since I was born, pretty much, and he was my brother's best friend forever… he's practically my second brother." She smiled a little sadly. "I'm too young to lose two big brothers." Then she grinned, clearly trying to up the mood. "Besides, he and Lyra are all over each other. Seriously, try asking _Lyra_ that question and tell me just how red she goes. And how badly she freaks out when she tries to tell you it's not true!"

"Oh, don't give me ammunition," Silver said with a wicked grin.

-P-

"I'm not getting a connection," Crystal sighed, putting away her Pokégear. She kicked her heels idly against the jetty, tugging a little self-consciously at her skirt. She'd never really been a dress or skirt kind of girl until the past year or so. Lyra suspected that the timing of Crystal's sudden transformation from a complete tomboy to an at least mildly girly-girl was strongly correlated with the time she started crushing on Gold. "What time is it supposed to get in?"

"Not for another hour," Lyra said, checking the time on hers. "And visiting hours don't start for two." Crystal kept kicking her heels, biting her lip nervously. Lyra smiled a little. "So stop stressing over your boyfriend, okay?"

"I, uh…" Crystal turned bright red and grew even more flustered. Lyra laughed.

"No need to get ashamed or embarrassed, not when it makes you both happy," she commented. Crystal nodded, her blush dying down.

"Try taking your own advice," she suggested, "and stop freaking out when people call Blue _your_ boyfriend!"

"Hey!" Lyra gasped, going as red as Crystal had earlier, making her friend giggle. "That's just mean!"

"Sorry," Crystal laughed, then suddenly grew solemn. "I'm sorry, Lyra."

"Don't be, it was just a bit of teasing," Lyra said, a little confused but suspecting that she was about to find out why Crystal had been so prickly for a while. It wasn't in a way that would be obvious to anyone who didn't know them inside out, but just little things- extended teasing, delays in responding to emails, the like- had made Lyra wonder if Crystal wasn't mad at her about something… "What's wrong, Kris? What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything," Crystal said, shaking her head. "That's why I feel so stupid. It was nothing at all. I was just…" she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "Feel free to laugh because I'm about to sound totally stupid, but I was kinda jealous. I thought Gold liked _you_." She thumped her head into her knees. "Okay, laughing can start now."

"You thought…?" Lyra tried hard not to laugh, she really did. Crystal rolled her eyes as Lyra's shoulders shuddered, her hands clamped over her mouth.

"Okay, I literally asked for it," she sighed. Lyra flapped her hand.

"Oh, Kris, I'm sorry," she gasped. "I really shouldn't laugh. It's just that… oh man. You thought _I_ was the one he had a crazy crush on for the past couple of years?"

"It looked that way!" Crystal cried. "I mean, he's always going on about how awesome you are to other people when you're not around. Although, I kinda do too, sometimes… but he kept asking me how I thought he should ask a girl out or show her he liked her, so I totally thought he meant a third party!"

"That was sneaky of him," Lyra said with a smile. "He was trying to find out what _you_ needed to hear from him. The thing is…" she clicked open her Pokégear and started scrolling through emails from Gold. They almost uniformly contained questions about ways to maybe ask Crystal out, how to interpret things she said or did, how she'd interpret things _he_ said or did, how to show her he cared…

"As for babbling about Lyra," Gold said, plopping down next to Crystal, "I started getting nervous about you, and I didn't want to say anything that sounded even the least bit flirty… so I talked about Lyra."

"Hey…" Lyra growled, and then did a double-take. "Hey! Gold, what the hell?" Crystal shrieked in surprise.

"Gold!" she cried, grabbing his arm. "What are you doing out of hospital? They haven't finished tests yet!"

"Aw c'mon, you know I've got a skull like a Shieldon," he said, tapping the bandages that he'd mostly hidden under his hat. He was fully dressed and had his bag with him. "If I'm not a vegetable, I'm fine. More importantly, you really think I'm gonna sit back and watch my girlfriend and best friend go off a-fightin'?" Crystal blushed a little at the moniker, but still frowned.

"Thanks for the chivalry, but we do have at least four gods between us," she pointed out. "Three more if you count Leaf Ketchum."

"Still, I hate just sitting around," Gold said, rolling his eyes and extricating his arm from Crystal's grasp to put it around her shoulder. "I'm fine. Now, let's go find a way to get rid of that thing so our best friend doesn't have to be sad and single anymore, 'kay?"

"_Please_ don't start on that," Lyra groaned. Then she narrowed her eyes on Gold. "What you said earlier… you were trying to think of something not the least bit beautiful or romantic, so you thought of _me_?"

"… Kris, help me out," Gold said in a stage whisper. "What's the right answer?"

"Well, if you say yes," Crystal responded in a similar unsubtle fashion, "you're calling her totally ugly and unsexy. But if you say no, it implies that she wasn't the first thing you thought of but nevertheless you consciously chose her. So either you're consciously or unconsciously calling her ugly."

"Aaaagh!" Gold cried in frustration, rubbing his head and wincing involuntarily. "Women! And your no-win situations! Seriously, abominations from another reality are easier to understand!"

"You still haven't answered my question, Gold," Lyra said maliciously. Gold looked over the pier.

"How deep is that water?"

"It's okay, Gold," Crystal said soothingly, giving him a hug and then pointing at an approaching object on the sea. "You only have to evade for a little while longer. Looks like the ferry's nearly here!"

-P-

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Silver said coldly when Gold relayed what had happened to him. Leaf groaned and crossed her arms on the table before thumping her head down onto them. Daisy just put her head in her hands.

"Don't I wish," Gold said, rubbing his head. Crystal kept looking worried every time he did this, like it was symptomatic of an imminent aneurysm. "But it's true."

"I'm not sure what those Orbs control, but I'm guessing it's not exactly a shoal of Magikarp," Lyra added. Leaf shook her head a little, and then sat up, pulling her hat off and combing her fingers rapidly and repeatedly through her hair.

"Oh, I can hazard a guess," she sighed. "There's this legend, see, about three Pokémon that shaped the earth- one that shaped the lands, one that filled the seas, and one that wove the heavens- in other words, created the atmosphere. The main temples to those three Pokémon are in Hoenn, because it's said that it's in the Hoenn region that the three sleep, and people claim to have seen them there since. They're named Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza."

"I've heard those stories," Silver said with a nod. "I also heard that they created the world through constantly, titanically battling each other. They only stopped because they lost their power…"

"Yeah, the old folks said they contained the powers of gods," Gold agreed. "So these three… Grugger, Kydo and…"

"_Groudon, Kyogre _and _Rayquaza_," Leaf said sharply. "And if someone controlled all three, they really could reshape the planet… or destroy it."

"Well, that answers the question of whether or not it's planning something," Silver said dryly. He frowned. "Question is, why hasn't it done anything already?"

"It's had the Orbs for at least a day now, yes?" Daisy said. "Would it have to take them somewhere?"

"I should think they'd only work in certain places," Leaf mused. "A focal point between earth, sea and sky…"

"Like the Embedded Tower?" Lyra suggested. Everyone stared at her, and then Crystal snapped her fingers.

"That place on the way to the Safari Zone, right?" she said, nodding. "I remember. That ruin nut wouldn't let me in, but I saw a half-buried tower with some carvings that I've seen elsewhere in Hoenn…"

"I've been inside, and yeah," Lyra agreed. "It's mostly collapsed inside, but you can still get it. Apparently, it's built on a major faultline in Johto. A volatile and important place between the land and the sea, and the tower use to go all the way up into the atmosphere…"

"What if there's a similar tower in Hoenn?" Crystal pointed out. "This is where these Pokémon supposedly live now, right? Surely they'd build a place like that here?"

"I'll ask the nurse," Silver said, striding over to the desk of the Lilycove Pokémon Centre (not affiliated with the hospital, which was lucky for Gold, since if his injuries didn't kill him the doctors just might, especially since his parents should be getting there right about now). Leaf followed, flicking through a notebook that she'd extracted from her bag. Daisy shot an amused look at Lyra, Gold and Crystal.

"You should hear the two of them babble about Legendaries," she said. "And they got going about alternate realities, and aliens, and frankly I lost track pretty quickly. Well, at least something good came out of this."

"Seriously?" Gold said, looking nonplussed. "Silver's found a girl who's actually _willing_ to put up with him?"

"You did, didn't you?" Lyra snarked. Crystal stuck her tongue out at her best friend. "Anyway… aw no," she sighed, looking out through the glass doors and seeing rain begin to fall, pretty heavily. "Would you look at that? Where the hell did that come from?"

"I've got a pretty good raincoat, but I'm not sure how dry it'll keep me when the clouds are bodyslamming us like that," Crystal observed.

"That doesn't look good," Gold observed, which seemed redundant at first until Lyra realized that he wasn't looking outside, but at Leaf and Silver, who were hurrying back over, the former looking very pale, the latter very grim.

"There's a tower like the Embedded Tower in Hoenn," Leaf said quickly, "and it's still intact. The Sky Pillar. It's to the south of here, fairly quick to get to if you surf. Oh, and apparently a small motorboat was stolen from the docks last night, and a security guard's in a coma. Oh, and I forgot to mention before, Kyogre has the power to cause perpetual rainfall, while Groudon has the power to cause perpetual sunlight and drought."

They all looked out of the door again. It was blindingly bright and bone-dry. Several other trainers were gathered around windows, staring.

"Oh, shit."

-P-

**Y'know, Gold's personality kinda reminds me of Kaito, and Silver's snark reminds me a little of Hakuba…** only with a bit of role-reversal, Silver being the career criminal with father-related issues and Gold (along with Lyra and Crystal) being the one hell-bent on tracking him down XDXD

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	18. Chapter XVII

_**Chapter XVII**_

"_You're kidding," _Lance gasped, loud enough to be audible to the rest of them. Silver winced.

"I wish," he said. "The Sky Pillar, Hoenn. We're going there now."

"_Backup will be with you soon. Hold on and try not to get in over your heads._"

"He has a point," Gold said as Silver hung up, rushing out of the Pokémon Centre where he'd been engaged with the Pokémon withdrawal system for a few minutes. "Shouldn't we get as much backup as possible before going to attack something that even the _Unown_ think is fucked up?"

"There's no time, Gold," Lyra said, looking around. They were in a dry spot, but the weather veered erratically between torrential rain and unbearable heat, not to mention the abrupt changes in air pressure that left them gasping or their ears popping. Leaf had tried to call for Mewtwo to help them, but the psychic Pokémon was nowhere to be seen, perhaps because of the high population of the city. Still, most people were running inside their houses and sticking their heads under their covers. Even if people were looking… who cared, right now? "We have to stop this thing before it destroys everything, before these effects spread beyond Hoenn. And we have to save Blue. _We_ want to help him, but the more authorities get involved, the more likely it is that there'll be someone who doesn't rank his life among their top priorities."

"Are we gonna chat or _go_?" Leaf asked, flinging up three Ultra Balls to release the Legendary Birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. Leaf made sure Daisy got safely onto Articuno's back before mounting Moltres.

"Right behind you," Silver said, releasing his Dragonite and climbing swiftly onto its back. Rain was beginning to fall again.

"You're injured, Gold," Crystal said, almost pleading. "You don't have to…"

"Aw, c'mon, don't make me feel like a wuss," Gold groaned, chucking out the Surf Ball that released Lugia and climbing onto its back, helping Crystal up behind him.

"Head straight south, right?" Lyra called, releasing Ho-oh and climbing onto its back. Leaf nodded.

"I'll lead! Let's go!"

The six fliers took off, shooting at high speed south across the sea. A moment later, Lyra's Pokégear buzzed.

"_Conference call,_" Silver's voice said. "_Let's keep in contact._"

"_Good idea,_" Leaf said.

"_So do we have a plan of attack or are we just going in gung-ho?_" Gold asked. Lyra glanced over at him. He looked more serious than she'd ever seen him.

"Knocking out Rayquaza, Groudon and Kyogre, or at least weakening them, might be a good start_,_" Lyra opined. "After all, I think we're all aware that gods aren't invincible. What types are we looking at?"

"_Groudon's ground_," Leaf informed them, "_Funnily enough. Suicune and Lugia might be good choices against it. Keep Raikou and Zapdos _away_ from it- they can fight Kyogre, since it's pure water. Rayquaza'll be tough, since it's a dragon-type. Mostly, other dragon-types are good against that, but normal Pokémon won't leave their pokéballs in the presence of the Missing One…_"

"_Dragons are also weak against ice,_" Silver said. "_Use Articuno_."

"_Which leaves Entei, Moltres and Ho-oh,_" Daisy said. "_And we still haven't figured out what to do about Blue…_"

"_Get those Orbs away from him,_" Gold said firmly. "_Fighting those three is all fun, but it'd be best if we could just command them back to sleep, right?_"

"Ho-oh, Moltres and Entei would be good to help protect _us_ against any straying attacks from the battle," Lyra suggested, "and also to surprise attack… the Missing One. Sky attacks and speed attacks are the best at surprise, after all."

"_Gold, Crystal and I will handle that,_" Silver said, to audible surprise from the other two mentioned. "_When we get the Orbs away from it, the three of us will each take one and try to calm the Pokémon they control, all right?_"

"_What about us?_" Daisy asked. Lyra thought she heard Leaf chuckle.

"_We're going to test the cliché,_" she said. "_You know, an "I Know You're In There" assault from three of the people Blue knows best and cares about most. If he's strong-willed enough to sustain the Missing One, he's probably strong enough to survive its presence, and that means he might be strong enough to fight it, motivated well enough. If we can force it out of his body, we'll try Ho-oh's Sacred Fire- normal fire didn't kill it in the past, but Sacred Fire's something else entirely._"

"_If that fails… well, Entei and Ho-oh can call on the Unown to reseal the thing,_" Silver added. "_Raikou and Suicune can help if we've managed to calm down the three gods by then._"

"We'd better be careful not to escalate the battle too much," Lyra warned. "My map says the tower isn't too far from several towns, including a floating one called Pacifidlog. People could get really hurt if we're not careful."

"_Leave containment up to me,_" Silver said in a smug fashion that sounded very much like his old self. "_I found just the Pokémon for the job when I was in the Sevii Islands recently._"

"_Wait, what_?" Gold said, echoing probably everybody else's thoughts. "_What Pokémon_?"

"_You'll see in a moment,_" Silver said, the Pokégears crackling as a thunderstorm started. With the fluctuating heat and quickly gathering clouds and winds, Lyra was seriously worried about tornadoes and typhoons. "_I discovered one and decided to collect the set, and it looks like a good thing I did…_"

"What…" Lyra began to ask, but cut off with a gasp as she spotted their destination up ahead. It was particularly notable as being the centre of the maelstrom of lightning, rain and general catastrophe, and was also made highly visible by the giant green, blue and red figures which were visibly causing said maelstrom as they battled.

"_There they are!_" Crystal gasped. "_Okay, let's go_!" there was a flash of light as she released Suicune, Entei and Raikou, who kept pace with the birds, running along the waves, protruding rocks and clouds respectively. "_Suicune, subdue Groudon! Focus on Hydro Pump! Raikou, direct the lightning towards Kyogre! Entei, you're with Gold and I!_" Lugia dipped to let Crystal and Gold move from its back to Entei's.

"_Lugia, help Suicune take down Groudon_!" Gold called as he left Lugia's back. Lyra flew over to Articuno, helping Daisy on behind her.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" she asked. Daisy nodded firmly, wrapping her arms around Lyra's waist to steady herself.

"Like Leaf said, I've got one of the best chances of getting through to Blue," she called.

"_Articuno, aim Blizzards and Ice Beams at Rayquaza_!" Leaf called as the blue bird flew away from Ho-oh. "_Zapdos, help knock out Kyogre! Moltres, we've got to get to the top of that tower!_"

Moltres moved closer to Silver's visibly shivering Dragonite, allowing Silver to join Leaf and return his frightened dragon. Then Lyra saw Silver jerk one arm up, releasing three pokéballs. One of them flew right over to the far side of the tower, rendering its occupant beyond Lyra's field of vision, and the other two took up perimeter points around the tower and the raging Pokémon. They planted themselves firmly into the rocks, too solid to be bowed by the wind and rain. Lyra saw the nearest one raise its clunky arms, the patterns on what was presumably its face glowing. A light began glowing, spreading to join the glows from the other two in a domelike shape which closed behind them, enclosing them with the raging Pokémon.

"_Safeguard,_" Silver was heard to command. "_Combine it. Let nothing out of here, and I mean _nothing."

"_You captured _Regis?" Leaf was heard to yell in shock as Regirock quickly fell behind them, Registeel vaguely visible on the distant side of the pillar.

"Never mind that for now! Divide and conquer, let's go!" Lyra yelled, indicating to Ho-oh to go to the top of the pillar, where two figures were moving rapidly about.

-P-

"I'm having a hard time contacting the leaders, since most of them have gone out to rescue people trapped in floods and similar," Steven sighed apologetically.

"_It'll take us some time to get from Johto,_" Lance said. There was rushing wind audible in the background, indicating that he was already on his way. "_Please, just get whoever you can to the Sky Pillar now. The trainers who've gone are frankly incredible, but they're all kids and they'll need backup, no matter what their skills._"

"We can be there in no time, Cap'n," Drake said, waiting by the door with Glacia, Phoebe and Sidney.

"We have to go quickly, Steven," Phoebe said firmly. She'd been raring to go ever since she'd gotten the news about the assault on her grandparents, and now she had a destination. "The Sinnoh League are already on their way, and hanging around won't get the Indigo League here any quicker…"

"Hey, check this out," Sidney said, nodding towards the window. Steven hung up and hurried to join him, gaping at what he saw outside.

Which was nothing much at all.

The torrential rain had stopped, but the sun was mild and normal; there was no rain, no lightning. The seas were calm, the skies clear excepting for the occasional wisp of light cloud. Only the sodden ground and fallen trees gave testament to the storm that had been raging minutes before.

"Has the battle ended already?" Glacia asked, staring at the sky. "Those kids _are_ good."

"That," mused Drake, "or it's the calm before the real storm…"

"Either way, it's our job to go find out," Steven said, running for the outside and releasing his Skarmory. "Let's move!"

-P-

Kyogre screamed angrily when roasted by lightning drawn down by Zapdos, from clouds specially created by Raikou for an almost unending supply of power. The torrential rain increased from the real clouds farther above, but there were pillars of intense heat, created by Groudon's rage as Suicune blasted water at it and Lugia fought to wrest control of the seas from Kyogre and turn them against Groudon. As Ho-oh and Moltres flew up the almost impossibly high sides of the Sky Pillar, with Entei running effortlessly up the vertical surface, they had to duck and weave around the blasts of dragon fire from Rayquaza and the frozen attacks of Articuno. Rayquaza was the least confrontational of the three great Pokémon, but was nevertheless formidable when it did fight. Lyra lost count of the number of times her ears popped.

"_There_!" Silver yelled, indicating that they'd nearly reached the top of the tower.

"_What the hell?"_ Gold added as they noticed that there were _two_ figures, not one, atop the tower, and they seemed to be fighting.

"_Mewtwo!"_ Leaf screamed. "_You were here?_"

_It learns quickly_, Mewtwo said in their minds. His voice sounded strained. _I cannot get near enough… the illusions are powerful… but you will be safe if you do not look it in the eye…_

Mewtwo fell back as they six of them reached the top of the tower, visibly struggling."What's wrong?" Daisy cried, rushing over to him with Leaf.

"Mewtwo can see into people's minds," Leaf said frantically. "We only really get messed up when we look it in the eye, when we try to see what it really is. Mewtwo can't _not_ see, and it's hurting him. Look after him, Daisy!" She leapt back onto Moltres' back with Silver, shooting up into the air and disappearing into the clouds, obviously intending a surprise attack. Entei started circling Blue, and Lyra took the front line by running straight towards him, Ho-oh right behind her.

He was standing on the crumbled roof of the tower, cradling the three brightly glowing orbs. Avoiding looking at his face, avoiding thinking about who he was and wasn't, Lyra tackled him. He dodged, as she'd expected, but his dodge took him straight into the path of Entei, who bowled him over. His movements were odd, disjointed; like a marionette, like someone who had to really think about how to move. His arms stayed rock-stiff, however, not dropping the jewels.

"Not use," it called. The voice was jarring; Blue's, yes, but it was speaking in a high tone, an edge of a mad, malignant cackle that Lyra had never heard before. It sounded utterly insane. "Not stop ever. Destroy! Get gone! Free!"

"What the hell are you rambling about?" Gold yelled, jumping from Entei's back and grabbing Blue's shoulders from behind, careful not to risk looking into his eyes again. Lyra ran over to help, but Blue lashed out, kicking behind him and making Gold yell in pain and let go, slumping to his knees. Entei shot past again, aimed at Blue, at the same time that Ho-oh went at him from another angle, but he dropped to the ground, dodging both. He might have been somewhat clunky and disjointed in his movements, but he knew what he was doing.

Before he could get up, though, Moltres shot down and landed on him, its talons digging into the rock around him and holding him down. Ho-oh and Entei stopped beside them, surrounding Blue, with Crystal dismounting to help Gold up.

"_Please_ don't do anything that stupid again," she pleaded as they went over to Blue, who was struggling viciously and snarling in an almost animal fashion against Moltres' powerful grip. Gold was limping a little.

"You're trying to get _Gold_ to stop being an idiot?" Silver said dryly, kneeling in front of Blue. He grunted as he reached for the orbs. "His grip is ridiculous."

"Away!" Blue snarled. "Away end your go away!"

"Shut up," Leaf snapped tearfully, helping pry the first orb out of his hands. She almost fell over from the force when the Jade Orb was finally extracted from his grasp, the Ruby and Sapphire Orbs falling out of their own accord as Blue failed to increase his grip. He was mostly focused on snarling and thrashing.

"Okay, pass them here," Crystal said, handing the Ruby Orb to Gold and then taking the Sapphire Orb. "If we can calm them-!"

_LOOK OUT! MOLTRES_!

"What?" Leaf cried, glancing back at Mewtwo before looking up, too late, as Rayquaza, shooting over their heads, thrashed its tail, smacking into the fiery bird and sending it screeching across the tower, until it fell off the edge.

"_Moltres_!" Leaf screamed, running after it. Silver yelled as the suddenly-freed Blue lashed out, punching him in the head hard enough to send him rolling, curled around the Jade Orb.

"Look out, he's got a crazy hard punch!" Gold yelled, a little redundantly, pulling Crystal away. Lyra didn't get away fast enough, and a deceptively strong foot smashed into her gut, causing her to collapse to the ground, the Missing One snarling and raising its foot again, this time over her head.

"Lyra!"

-P-

_**I presume this is nearing its climax?**__ Pretty much. There are twenty chapters excluding the prologue and epilogue, so yeah :P_

_**How could Silver discuss Team Rocket so openly?**__ Well, he's still getting over the mindscrew he got at the Ruins of Alph… he doesn't have as much control over his emotions as he normally does. He despises Team Rocket, so when their name comes up, he's incapable of hiding his emotions as fully as normal. The way that people are handling his new expressiveness, though- really well, especially Leaf, who's never met him before anyway- he might not get around to rebuilding his Poker Face, so to speak._

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	19. Chapter XVIII

_**Chapter XVIII**_

"Lyra!" Crystal screamed as their best friend went down, mingling with Ho-oh's now-incoherent screeches. She started running for her, but Gold lunged forward and pulled her back, ignoring his own gut pain in favour of stopping her take a deflected Ice Beam dead-on. They both slipped and fell as the ground iced over.

"Leaf'll reach her before we can!" he yelled over the rush of the wind and the cries of the battling Pokémon, indicating the older girl who was nearly at Lyra even as the Missing One raised Blue's foot over Lyra again. "We'll be more use if we stop the fighting now, calm things down!"

Crystal was crying, but she nodded in determination, shivering as she clutched the Sapphire Orb, which slowly began to glow. Gold pulled her onto his lap, keeping her off the ice, and held her with one arm while using the other to hold the Ruby Orb to his chest.

"_Stop_," he prayed to it, unsure if that was what you should do but unable to think of anything better. "_Please. Calm down, go away, just_ stop fighting…_"_

-P-

"Lyra!" Leaf yelled, skidding on the collapsing stone a little as she ran for her friend, passing Silver, who was kneeling, eyes closed, focused entirely on the now brightly-glowing Jade Orb. Rayquaza shot closely over her head, screeching, but already it sounded less angry, less violent.

"_They're calming them_," she realized, "_But it might not be in time…_"

She wasn't going to make it. Blue's foot was already descending towards Lyra's skull.

-P-

Lyra's ribs hurt too much, and there was an odd buzzing in her ears. Why was it so crazy strong? Why…

"_Oh, no,_" she thought, watching him kick down at her. "_He's going to crush me… no…_"

She closed her eyes, but pain failed to happen; instead, something flecked her face, like sand or pebbles. When she opened her eyes, she saw Blue's foot several inches away, in the centre of a small crater of smashed rock.

"_That… could have been me…_" she thought, coughing as she struggled to her hands and knees. "_But… it wasn't…?_" looking up, she saw an expression of absolute confusion on Blue's face, like something unexpected had happened.

"Lyra!" Leaf yelled, shoulder-slamming Blue, who went over backwards. He started getting up, but his arms were beginning to jerk spasmodically. They'd been shaking for a while, but it was getting worse.

"What's wrong with him?" Daisy cried, kneeling next to Lyra and putting her arms under her shoulders to help her up. "Is he… fighting it?"

"I don't know… Blue?" Leaf called. "Blue!"

_I can't sense any conscious control from your friend,_ Mewtwo said, kneeling next to them and raising a barrier in case Blue attacked again. _There is a spark of coherence in there… but it's very weak, not dominant. The problem with him is physical, not psychological. The Missing One has not taken very good care of your friend. It does not understand warning signals like hunger, or pain, or exhaustion. The body is falling apart-_ Mewtwo suddenly cut off in confusion, but Lyra barely noticed.

"It's killing him!" She cried, struggling to her feet. "We have to get it out now!" She looked up at Ho-oh, who was circling them warily, screeching at Blue. The calls had odd harmonics, like the chittering of Unown. The fighting seemed to have stopped; had the other three called and left. "Ho-oh! Can the Unown affect it?"

_No harm in trying._ Ho-oh screeched commandingly and Entei, Suicune and Raikou began circling them, all baying and howling. Silver, Gold and Crystal appeared next to them, all cradling the Orbs. Silver was looking in concern at the gathering clouds, warping and twisting- no, the _air_ was twisting, the Unown arriving through dimensions.

"I had to return the Regis to let Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza leave," he called, "which means things here can't be contained, got- LOOK OUT!"

The Missing One had lunged at them, managing to grab Lyra's arm. She grabbed back, wincing as her ribs jarred and carefully avoiding eye contact. Leaf grabbed his other arm, Daisy grabbing his shoulders and standing on his feet.

"Blue!" she said sharply, commandingly, in a tone that reminded Lyra of her mom when she was _really_ angry. "Mewtwo said at least some part of your mind's still intact, so you listen to me, young man! We have to get this thing out of you!"

"Go!" Blue snarled. "Away die get!"

"C'mon, Blue, don't wimp out on us!" Leaf yelled, letting out some mockery of a laugh. "It's about to get really tough for that thing to hold on, so you make it tougher, you hear me?"

"Away! No! Go die!"

"Come _on_, Blue," Lyra tried to yell, though her damaged ribs made it difficult. "It's a battle, and you're not one to give up on battle, especially when the stakes are so high! I _know_ you can put up a tough fight, so you'd better! Be worth that Earth badge!"

The Unown were around them now, and beginning to sing in their odd, screechy way, augmented by the dog's howls and Ho-oh's bizarre screeches. Blue screamed, and then went limp. The girls lightened their holds for the briefest moments. Then he pulled himself away, their desperate attempts to grab him again only managing to pull his jacket off. Seeing this, he grinned oddly, before wrapping his arms around his head and screaming again.

"Blue, hang on… _BLUE_!" Leaf screamed, her cried growing precipitously more desperate as she noticed, as did Lyra, that Blue's staggering and flailing was causing him to stumble towards one of the now-many craterous holes and collapses in the Sky Pillar's top. Lyra lunged forwards, but the movement knocked her ribs at an odd angle and she fell over, giving a sharp cry of pain. She felt hands pulling her up, supporting her- Gold and Crystal- and managed to look up through an encroaching black haze to see Leaf and Daisy both reaching for Blue. He flung them both away, and then gave that odd smile again.

"Okay," he said hoarsely. "Soon… it'll be… okay…"

"What the…?" Gold muttered. Blue's voice was odd; or rather, it was _normal_, not at all like the mad ramblings they'd been expecting. It was like…

Then he toppled backwards, his eyes briefly meeting Lyra's as he went over.

"_BLUE_!" Lyra screamed, only Gold and Crystal's grips stopping her from flinging herself forwards as Leaf did, stopped from going over the edge herself only by Silver diving forward and grabbing her, hauling her back from the edge. Daisy moved forwards too, her scream mingling with Lyra's, but she was knocked aside by the white blur that was Mewtwo, diving down after Blue.

"Blue!" Lyra cried, ignoring the throbbing pain it caused in her ribs, synchronized with pulsing black splotches in her vision. "Blue! _Blue_!"

_Get back._

Her head snapped up as Ho-oh suddenly flew down, hovering over the hole, its beak opening and glowing brilliantly, before a stream of bright white-and-purple Sacred Fire shot down the hole, probably burning all the way to the base of the tower and some way into the bedrock below. Daisy screamed again, as if she'd been set alight herself. Her Blissey released itself, holding her back, stopping her from diving down the hole after her brother. Leaf gasped and slumped- she probably would have collapsed entirely if Silver hadn't been holding her back. Lyra felt full of fire, not just from the burn of her ribs.

"Ho-oh, what the hell are you _doing_?" she screamed.

_Making sure. _

As soon as the fire stopped, the Unown poured down the hole. They all stared at the hole, barely breathing, praying for Blue and Mewtwo.

"Green," Lyra breathed into the silence. "I saw it. They were green. He was getting back… he had to be okay…"

"He'd better be," Leaf growled. "I need to smack some sense into him… he knew…" she knelt down, touching his jacket. Several pokéballs spilled out of one pocket. Lyra thought of his grin when the jacket came off. _It'll be… okay…_ "Blue…"

"Please," Daisy was praying, whispering aloud. "Blue… be okay…" Her Blissey began singing comfortingly. Dazedly, Lyra felt that there was something odd about Blissey being out, but she couldn't think what. Az had also appeared, hugging her trainer's leg. They weren't afraid…

_I'm sorry._

Lyra stared at the hole as a powerful blue shield, dripping with white embers, rose from the hole. They all watched as Mewtwo carefully set down among them, his paws clutched protectively around something glowing…

"Mewtwo," Leaf said weakly, like she was terrified to ask. "What happened? What happened to it? What happened to…?"

_The Missing One is gone. It was not as strong as it once was, in any case, after millennia of subjugation to the Unown. It was incinerated by the Sacred Fire; it is far more powerful than normal fire. _

"Blue," Daisy begged him. "What's happened to my brother? To Blue?"

Mewtwo looked down, at the light. _Forgive me. I failed. I did not reach him until… there was nothing worth saving but this._ He opened his paws, showing them the object inside. It was difficult to describe or define; it was constantly fluctuating in shape, size, colour, intensity…

"Is that… what I think it is?" Crystal whispered, her hands shaking on Lyra's shoulders. Gold covered his mouth with his hand. Lyra tried to stand again, but winced as the pain in her ribs only increased. Blissey, noticing her wince, rushed over and placed her little pink paws on Lyra's shoulders, singing again and glowing a little as she used Heal Bell. The sharp pain in her ribs faded, but it was nothing against a greater, growing ache.

"Mewtwo," Leaf said. "Please tell me… that's not all that's left… Please tell me…" tears were flowing down her cheeks, and her voice was choked. "Tell me… I've not lost another brother… _please_!" Daisy's expression was hidden; she was sitting in an ungainly heap on the stones, facing down, her long brown hair shading her face. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, gripping her shoulders, like she was literally holding herself together. Mewtwo looked downcast, even his _telepathic_ voice trembling.

_I am… so sorry…_

Leaf slumped slowly to her knees, her fall slowed by Silver, who seemed worried about letting go of her, lest she fall apart entirely. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open slightly, but there was no real expression in either; she seemed entirely catatonic. If Lyra had really been thinking, been aware of anything except the huge pain in every inch of her body, she would remember seeing Leaf like that before, just once.

_She could see the funeral pyre, even far closer to Viridian than Pallet as she now was. It went high into the night sky, slicing the night in half. Yet, it was silent; no screaming or wailing or crying or even talking drifted through the air. Not grief enough to cry, or too much?_

_The girl- Leaf Ketchum right?- was definitely on the far side of grief. Lyra'd passed her a short way back, sitting on a rock a ways away from Pallet, staring at nothing. She'd been whisper-singing, like a lullaby or a skipping rhyme, but in a disjointed way that suggested that lines were missing. Or at least, she wasn't singing them._

_Lyra hadn't stopped to talk to her, too absorbed by the raging storm in her mind. But even if she had, what would it have been worth? Leaf was staring blankly into the darkness, in a way that wasn't looking at or seeing anything, really. She didn't look up at Lyra's passing, didn't seem to hear or notice her. If Lyra had spoken to her, would Leaf have heard her?_

She looked like she had then. She was older than Lyra, but like then, she looked like nothing but a lost, lonely child. She looked like Lyra felt, like nothing was real, like nothing _should_ be real. Not anymore.

Especially that odd light gathering behind Leaf. That didn't seem for real, either. Especially the way that, the second they saw it, the eight various Legendaries instantly returned themselves, as if suddenly deciding that they no longer needed to be here.

Leaf turned her head and looked up as Silver almost fell backwards staring.

-P-

**You've missed some of the legendaries- where is Jirachi, for example?** I haven't missed them, this story just takes place between the events of Gold/Silver/Crystal/HeartGold/Soulsilver and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Jirachi is still sleeping somewhere in Hoenn, just as, say, Shaymin is probably snuggling down in a patch of flowers somewhere in Sinnoh. Each of the legendaries has a region that they prefer, and so that's where they'll be found when the time is right.

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	20. Chapter XIX

_**Chapter XIX**_

"What the hell is that?" Gold asked, sounding a mixture of bewildered and tired of yet _another_ bizarre development. Lyra was starting a little blankly at Leaf, or rather, whatever was appearing behind her. When Leaf turned to look at the light, which faded into a shape, at first she barely saw it.

"Oh…" Leaf stared up at the figure, not just in surprise, but in _recognition_. Something clicked. "Why are you here?"

_That's…_ Mewtwo sounded shellshocked, and why wouldn't he be? The others were staring too, in varying degrees of confusion. Only Silver looked outright shocked. Well, he _would_ be the one to recognize the little creature.

"Myuuuuuu," the little pink creature crooned, floating down to Leaf and touching her cheek with her tiny paw. _I heard you crying, in your heart. Like you were when I met you._

"I've seen that one in grandfather's lab, or pictures of it, anyway," Daisy gasped, wiping her eyes as she stared at the little critter. "Mew. The "Progenitor Pokémon"!"

"Progenitor?" Crystal said in surprise. "Wait, I've heard that story! The Pokémon that's the ancestor of all other Pokémon!"

"Whoa," Gold whistled. "How cool is that? Right?" he looked at Lyra, who despite having been healed by Blissey didn't look like she felt like moving any time soon. She was staring blankly at Mew, no surprise or confusion, or any emotion at all. Gold grew downcast, Crystal hugging her friend again.

"That's right," Leaf said, reaching up. Mew hugged her around the neck, giggling like a child. Its voice sounded like a little girl, all cheerfulness and innocence, like when Leaf had first met it. But back then her grief was not as raw, her heart not quite so heavy, and it was much easier to lift. Now… "Mew. I _am_ sad again. I've lost another brother, Mew…" a lump filled her throat again, making her breath come in gasps. Mew glowed a little, wrapping her tail around Leaf, before floating up into the air again.

_That's so sad,_ she said in that same high, bright voice, growing melancholy. _It's no good. He fought that nasty thing. He helped make it go away._ She looked around at all of them, sad, shocked, grieving. _You all helped save everything. You shouldn't be sad._ She floated over to Mewtwo, curling her tail loosely around the light- a spirit? A soul?- in Mewtwo's paws. _You agree, don't you, little brother? That's why you saved what you could_.

_It's not enough,_ Mewtwo said, shaking his head. _What can be done with it?_

_Lots, maybe…_ Mew looked around at them all, nodding a little to herself. _All of you, you've been chosen by special Pokémon. Or you've chosen them. You were brave enough to get real close, closer than anyone else._ She looked at Daisy. _Even you. You didn't catch any, but you still came here, right? Most people would be real scared to. Would you be ready to try something even scarier?_

"I was terrified," Daisy admitted quietly. "But now what I feared worst has happened… what's left to fear?"

"Good question," Leaf said, laughing humourlessly. "Mew… what are you saying?"

_That if you're all real brave,_ Mew said, tipping her head a little, _and if you promise to keep real quiet, I might be able to show you something special. Something that can help your friend._

Lyra moved for the first time in a long while. She got jerkily to her feet, Gold and Crystal rising with her, hands on her arms in case she collapsed again. Silver was already on his feet, and he extended a hand to help Leaf get up from her kneeling position, all staring at Mew. Daisy clutched Blissey's paw.

"You're saying…" she gestured at Mewtwo. "You can save him?"

_I can't,_ Mew said, shaking her head, _but I know someone who can. But just the same, they might kill all of you instead. They're not very… predictable._

"I'll risk it," Daisy said firmly. Leaf nodded.

"So will I," she agreed, steeling herself. "He would for us." Lyra also stepped forward.

"I don't care who they are or where they are," she said firmly. "All that's important is that they can help Blue. That's all I care about…"

"I'm going too," Crystal said, crossing her arms firmly. Gold hugged her with a grin.

"You mean _we're_ going," he corrected her. "Our best friend's happiness is our prime concern, right?"

"_I'm_ not sitting here alone to explain things to the authorities," Silver said, rolling his eyes. "I'll come too. Besides… this sounds interesting."

_We have to go somewhere first, _Mew said, flicking her tail. _Everybody come close so I can teleport us all together._

"Mew, where are we going?" Leaf asked as they all drew together in a circle around Mew, including Mewtwo.

_To the north. That's where the gate is._

-P-

"Steven, what _happened_ here?" Lance called as his Dragonite landed. Steven stepped back, indicating to the rest of his Elites to back up as the Dragonite was followed by a Salamence, an exceptionally large Crobat and a Honchkrow, dispensing four more trainers between them. There were several other flying Pokémon flying around the tower. "Is it over already?"

"I'm not sure," Steven said, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. "When we first tried to get here, there was a huge shield around the tower and the sea around it… It was a giant safeguard, but what kind of Pokémon could make one that large or strong…"

"Rayquaza, maybe?" Will mused thoughtfully. Steven shook his head.

"Safeguard isn't one of Rayquaza's powers," he said, thinking about the legends. "Or at least, it's not one it's ever used before. It's only been known to descend to calm warring between Groudon and Kyogre, and that's not a task that's ever involved defensive powers before."

"Which means something else created it," Karen said smoothly, "to contain the battle."

"The other Elites and leaders are searching the area for any hint of what created the Safeguard," Steven explained, indicating the occasional flying figure as they passed and circled.

"What of the young ones who came to this place?" Koga questioned. Steven bit his lip, not knowing how to answer.

"We haven't seen them here at all," he said, truthfully, "or any sign of them… but then, we haven't searched the tower yet…"

"Well, _somebody_ oughta do that, don't you think?" Bruno said, leaping down through one of the holes in the roof. Lance glanced at the others, who followed. Then he looked back at Steven.

"What aren't you saying, Steven?" he asked quietly. "What else happened?"

"… After a while, the Safeguard split," Steven said, crouching back next to the patch of rock he'd been examining. "Not broken; it was dropped. We saw Rayquaza fly into the sky, and Kyogre dive into the sea… we think Groudon dug back into the land. We had to stay back while they were fleeing, there was a massive backlash of contained power… and when we tried to get to the top of the tower… we couldn't."

"What was wrong?" Lance asked, looking around, before crouching next to Steven. "Another Pokémon?"

"I don't know," Steven said ruefully. "Our Pokémon wouldn't go near the place… like there was something there they didn't want to be anywhere near…" he glanced meaningfully at Lance, but Lance was fixated with the rocks. Or rather, the red stains on the rocks.

Blood. Human blood.

"A blast of fire went straight through the tower, too," Steven said quietly. "Whatever went on here, it went badly. Very badly. But by the time our Pokémon were willing to move, all we'd seen from the distance was something large moving on the roof; then there was a flash of light, and by the time we got here, nothing but cooling rock and…" he gestured at the stains.

"Those kids…" Lance said, sounding faintly horrified. "Where the hell are they?" Then he shook his head. "Wherever they are… they'll be fine."

"But this is-" Steven began, surprised that Lance wasn't worried, but Lance just grinned.

"They're Indigo Champions," he said confidently. "All of them. Even if they haven't been to the Hall of Fame… anyone who'd fight out here, against such powerful Pokémon, is a champion. And our champions don't go down easy…" Steven almost missed his last comment, but he just heard the faint, uncertain whisper.

"… Not in a decent fight…"

-P-

"This is _cold_!" Gold complained aloud, rubbing his arms. Crystal nudged him in the ribs, but wrapped her arm around his.

"C'mon, you big b-baby," she said, unable to completely stop her own teeth from chattering. Lyra wasn't shivering, but she spent so much time on Mt Silver, she probably wasn't feeling it. Mewtwo extended a blue bubble of energy around them, which stopped the snow falling on them and made it marginally warmer. Leaf looked around, and then gasped in recognition.

"These are the Sinjoh Ruins!" she said in shock. "They're at the most northern point of Johto and most southern point of Sinnoh. We're extremely high up in the mountains. No wonder it's so cold!"

"The Sinjoh Ruins?" Silver asked, rubbing his hands together and looking around. "I've never heard of them before."

"They're not well-known or well-documented," Leaf said as they trudged through the snow towards an open cave. "Partially because it's incredibly hard to get to, and partially because those who've made it have discovered bugger-all about who built it, when, or why. The carvings within it don't correspond to the carvings of any one region- they seem to be a mishmash of all of them, but the result isn't something anybody's been able to decipher. The building style doesn't remotely resemble the ancient buildings of any other region. There's no indication of why it was built…"

_You've all forgotten this place,_ Mew said as they stepped inside of the pitch-black cavern. _But you were meant to. Still, different people remembered different little things about it… after all, once you were all here._

"You mean…" Leaf said, looking around. "This is the true origin-place of humanity?"

_This is where humans first lived in this world._

"Whoa…" Gold said, looking around. "Anyone got a light?"

"Ask and ye shall receive," Crystal giggled as an odd glow began to spread across the room. Bright patterns were drawing themselves across the walls in different colours, odd concentric circles and arches…

"Oh, my goodness," Daisy gasped. "Some of these patterns… the look like the world!"

"You're right!" Leaf gasped, staring. Some of the strange patterns on the walls, when she looked at them closely, did look like abstract representations of the continents, but there were other shapes that she didn't recognize, though it was possible that they were merely lands that she didn't know of yet.

The centre point of the room, however, was a series of interlocking rings, all circling a triangle in the floor. Mew floated over the triangle, which began to glow.

_It opens when one of us is over it,_ she explained. _So only we can go through. But if I stay here, you can go through._

"Where to?" Crystal asked, crouching next to the glowing triangle and peering into it. There was only white light to be seen. "I can't see…"

_The Garden of Origin. Where life began._

"Hoenn has a Cave of Origin, though," Gold said thoughtfully. "And doesn't Sinnoh have something like that too? A place where they said life comes from?"

_They are merely the first places that the humans from those regions remember_, Mew said, shaking her head._ Like the civilization of Alph in Johto and the ancient Fuschia forests. Through here is where life _truly_ began. And if you do not tread carefully, it is where yours will end._

"_That's_ welcoming," Crystal said rolling her eyes. Lyra stepped towards the triangle.

"If it's where life began, of course it would be where we could save Blue," she said, looking into the light. Then her face set into resolution and she nodded. After Crystal and Gold realized what she was thinking, but before either could stop her, she stepped forward and dropped into the light.

"Well, that's us in for the ride," Crystal said, linking her fingers with Gold's.

"Let's go before I get a chance to think about it," Gold sighed, stepping forwards.

"Like that ever stopped you before," Silver said dryly. Gold stuck his tongue out, before wrapping his arms around Crystal as the two of them jumped in together.

"Shall we?" Daisy said to Blissey. The healer didn't look nervous or scared at all, but rather extremely excited. She was practically dancing towards the light, which encouraged Daisy to follow her fairly calmly. Leaf stepped forward and glanced at Silver.

"You coming?" she asked. "Are you worried about your friends?"

Silver started. "Who says they're my friends?"

Leaf giggled. "Your reaction just did," she said softly. "For all that you bitch about them, I get the impression that their opinions matter to you more than any other. You want them to see that you're different now. You need _their_ acceptance more than any other's."

Silver looked down. "Not entirely true, but… ah, what the hell." He turned and jumped into the light. Leaf giggled to herself.

"That was kinda cute," she commented to Mewtwo. "Well, shall we go?"

_I shall follow directly after you,_ Mewtwo said, standing next to the light and holding the glowing sphere in his hands a little closer. _We should go quickly. And be wary of what is on the other side. It may not take kindly to our intrusion._

_Focus on your friend,_ Mew said. _If the others sense no ill will in you, only kindness, only love… they will accept and protect you. We love the light._

"We…?" Leaf asked, but she had already stepped into the light, and Mew and Mewtwo vanished as her feet touched grass.

-P-

_**Do you take all questions seriously when you answer them in reviews?**__ Pretty much, yeah XD_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	21. Chapter XX

_**Chapter XX**_

"Isn't this beautiful?" Daisy asked softly as Leaf stepped forward, staring at the fields around them, a perfect shade of green, expanding to the mountains an inestimable distance away. The only nearby disturbance to the vista was a lush forest, the plants unusual but harmonic colours. "Even the temperature's perfect."

"Look at the sky!" Crystal gasped, twirling around, head back and staring upwards at the vast aurora that comprised the sky, ever-changing, all colours. There was no visible sun, but there was light everywhere, soft and clear. "Isn't it incredible?"

"It's crazy," Gold opined, "but crazy awesome."

_This place…_ Mewtwo said as he appeared, staring around in wonder. _It feels… comforting…_

_It is home,_ Mew said happily as she appeared. _To all Pokémon, it is home._

"Is this… where Pokémon were born?" Lyra asked a little distantly, looking around. Tiny glowing eyes were starting to appear in the vegetation, and then faces followed. Hundreds of identical faces.

Hundreds of Mew.

"_Mew_?" Silver said in surprise, staring around at the multitude of little Pokémon. Some were blue rather than pink, but other than that, all were the same, all staring curiously at them. Lyra got the impression that they were having a conversation, questioning the Mew that brought them, but they were keeping the psychic speech out of the humans' heads. They didn't look aggressive, though; mostly a mixture of curious and confused.

Only their Mew let them hear her speech.

_It's okay,_ she said. _It's up to him. But they're not dangerous. They want to know why you're here,_ she added, looking at them. The first thing Lyra thought of was Blue.

"Blue," Leaf said aloud. "We're here to help Blue… they can hear our thoughts, so everyone, remember what happened to him. Remember what we're here for."

"My brother…" Daisy said, looking around. "Are you the ones who can help my brother?"

"Are you?" Lyra asked, looking around pleadingly at the multitude of Mew. They were more relaxed now, probably encouraged by sensing their intent. "Can you help him?"

_We can't,_ one of them said. It was hard to be sure, but it seemed to be one of the blue ones, and while all of them spoke in high, childlike voices, this one sounded more like a boy. _But He can. Can you show them the way?_

_Let's go_! Leaf's Mew said, leading them on. A few of the Mew were gathered curiously around Mewtwo, who looked a little apprehensive. _I'll show you the way._

"This really is beautiful," Crystal said, looking around at the lush greenery- or whatever-colour-ery- around them. It seemed to fold out of their path, rather than constantly tripping them with roots or smacking them with branches like beautiful forests normally did. "Is it only Mew here?"

_And whatever else we want,_ Mew said, directing them to two other Mew, who as they were flying away transformed casually into Pidgeot and shot off into the sky. There were other Pokémon dotted around, playing and some smoothly transforming from form to form. Some were creatures that Lyra had simply never seen before, such as a large Pokémon that resembled a Ponyta, but its body was purple with white markings rather than pure white, and had a jagged white mane rather than a mane of fire. There were three of them, grazing with several Rapidash with ash-grey manes.

"The Pokémon here are all unusually coloured," Silver noted, watching two giggling purple Wigglytuff bounce past. "Still… you said all Pokémon came from here… does this mean that species originate from your play?"

"Of course," Leaf gasped, looking around. "These forms… you create them to play in, right? And then you stay in your favourite form, and if more than one stay in a favourite form…"

_You are very clever,_ Mew giggled. _If more than one of us play in a form for a long time, sometimes we create eggs. We take those eggs out into the world, to places where they can grow up and thrive safely. _

"All of the hundreds of species on earth were made by Mew's games?" Gold said in surprise, looking around at the playing Pokémon.

_And hundreds more that you've never seen. We can take them to safety through time as well as space. You might soon discover new species that have been thriving in your world for generations, yet have not even been created here yet._

"I didn't know Mew could time-travel as well as teleport," Silver mused. Mew shook her head.

_Our parent can. He helps._

"Parent…?" Lyra asked, looking up at the huge mountain that they were slowly approaching. "The parent… of Mew…?"

"They are awfully childlike, aren't they," Daisy said fondly. "They're all somebody's babies. Somebody made all these Mew…"

_And that somebody goes through time to make new lands for the baby species. Our parent can make anything we need, anything any Pokémon needs._

"Guys…" Leaf said uncertainly, slowing as they approached the mountain. "Have we really thought about… the magnitude of what we're dealing with here?"

"No," Lyra said, still striding firmly forward, "but if I ever thought about what I was doing, I'd never have travelled through time or caught Ho-oh. I never would have stopped Team Rocket or, hell, dared to take Cyndaquil and start travelling."

"Stupid as it is to charge in blindly, it seems to have always worked for you guys," Silver said with a rueful little chuckle. "So let's not take long enough to think now."

"Blue always got on Red's case for being so headstrong and charging in blindly," Daisy said sadly, looking up at the mountain as they approached a cave at its base, "said it was going to get him really hurt someday…" she looked down, her hair shadowing her face as her voice broke.

_Something very powerful is in here,_ Mewtwo said uncertainly. _A greater power than I've ever felt._

"Sorry, little brother," Daisy said, looking up again, voice firm. She looked at Mewtwo, at what he was holding. "But there's no time to stop and think."

"What's _that_?" Gold yelped as the light from the cave entrance vanished behind them, and a new glow started ahead.

In the air all around them were flickering images; people, Pokémon, places… Lyra might have recognized some of them, but she didn't care to look. Her eyes were trained blankly on the glittering light in Mewtwo's hands, and then to the larger light glowing in the centre of the room.

The light was emanating from a vaguely equine creature, largely white and grey with hooves and eyes that were constantly changing colour, along with some kind of cross or wheel or both through its midsection. Those odd, ever-changing eyes focused on them as the creature floated down to regard them. The constant colour change along with the lack of other visible features made it difficult to discern its expression, but the Mew who had guided them bowed her head a little, looking almost ashamed.

_What are these?_ It said. The voice reminded Lyra of Leaf's description of the Missing One's voice; it was heard, it was felt, it _happened_ in everything. But it wasn't grating like the Missing One's true voice; it was low and smooth and comfortable, enveloping everything like a blanket. Like how the garden outside had been ever-changing, like the Missing One's world, yet it created beauty and comfort, not confusion and fear.

_They are people,_ Mew said in her high, childish voice. _They have a request, so I brought them to you._

_Why?_ The creature said.

_Because you can grant it,_ Mew replied. _They need life, and who better than you?_

"Arceus," Lyra suddenly gasped, remembering the carvings in Celestic Town, and the stories Cynthia and her grandmother had told her.

"_Arceus created everything, the giver of life._" And if this garden was the origin place of life, of course life's originator would be at the core…

"Arceus?" Leaf gasped in surprise, the others merely looking confused. "The one they say created all life, all that exists? Oh my…" she paled rapidly, dropping to one knee. The others followed suit, as did Lyra. She wasn't in the business of bowing to anyone, usually, but this _was_ probably the most powerful creature in existence, and anyway, there was something far more important than her pride on the line here.

_That is I,_ Arceus confirmed. _Why are they here, Mew?_

_They are good people, parent,_ Mew said. The odd address registered with some facet of Lyra's mind. Not lord or master, _parent_; that was what the others had referred to, as well. The one who created all these babylike Mew… _They stopped a Lost Creature from destroying everything. But in doing so, their friend lost his life, and so I brought them to you in the hope that you could restore it._

"Please, Arceus," Daisy begged him. "Please save my brother."

"If you're the creator, you could do it in no time!" Gold agreed. "Blue's a great guy. Don't let him stay dead."

"Please," Lyra asked softly. "He did not deserve to die."

_Every day, people die who do not deserve it,_ Arceus said, almost boredly. _Should I save every one of them? Should I stop all from death? But what would become of this world then? It would be sucked dry. Death must happen for life to happen. _

"But what's the point if you die before you've properly lived?" Crystal asked, slight anger simmering under her tone. "People die every day, but they don't always die saving the _whole damn planet_…"

_And does that make their lives worth less? _Arceus said, putting Crystal on the back foot. _There is no more reason to save this one than any other. Besides, why should I interfere with the affairs of humans? You are not my artifice._

"Not your…? I thought you created all that is," Leaf said, almost accusingly. "That's what the legends say."

_Human legends. You flatter yourselves to think that I created you especially, separately from Pokémon. I created this world, yes, and I created my Mew, my Pokémon, but like that Lost Creature, you came from… elsewhere. You simply came from an elsewhere that fit with this world better than the Lost Creature's did._

"But if you created all this," Gold said, waving his arm around the flickering images, "it should be a cinch to copy, right? You could do it in a heartbeat! So why don't you?"

_I see no reason to._

"No reason to-?" Gold spat. Lyra was on her feet too, almost raging, forgetting that she was seriously thinking of attacking the most powerful creature in existence, but Leaf was up too, stepping forwards.

"Because we're here," she said, her voice not angry or accusing, just tired and a little lost. "People die unfair deaths every day. My _brother_ died an unfair death, far too young. And if I'd had this chance for him, for _anyone_, I'd beg just the same. I never got that chance for Red like we're getting this chance for Blue, and yes, that's unfair. And maybe I'll never know why. Maybe there was never a reason why, just pure, gambling luck that we're here now. But none of that changes the fact that we _are_ here now, we _do_ have this chance. Should we let it go now because we didn't have it then?" Tears had been streaming down her cheeks ever since she said her brother's name. "I know I could never forgive myself if I did. I could spend my entire life looking for the reason why, and who knows, maybe I will. But here and now, we have the chance to save Blue. How could we let that go?"

"Red's gone, and we've all had to deal with that," Daisy said, her own voice choked. "We've all lost people. I know we can't ask you to save them all. But Leaf's right; just because we can't save them all doesn't mean we should save up the chance to save one. Just one. That's all."

"It's better than nothing," Gold agreed. "We can't just walk away. He wouldn't."

"We know you're not a free ticket to immortality, Arceus," Crystal said softly. "Every day people die and we can't save them. But Blue…" she gestured to the glowing light in Mewtwo's hands. "We have a chance with this one. We have a chance but we need help, and you're the only one who can give it to us. That's all there is to it."

"We _can't_ walk away," Lyra said, looking straight into Arceus' ever-changing eyes. "_I_ can't. If you want us to beg, or do some task or whatever, say it. Just save him. Please. You're the only one who can. Please…"

_Because you love him,_ Arceus said, making Lyra jerk. _All of you. You realize that I could unmake you at any moment?_ They all stiffened, but nodded. _Yet here you stand, with bravery borne of valuing another's life above your own. _

"He's our friend," Leaf said softly. "And like Gold said, he'd do the same for us."

_Yes,_ Arceus mused. _Because you love your friend. That, too, is something I did not create._

_It creates itself,_ Mew said. _It's powerful enough to bring itself into existence, without your help. _

_You're a cheeky one, but you speak the truth,_ Arceus said, sounding almost amused. _And in that, it may be a power greater than me… _He nodded to Mewtwo. _Give him to me. Let me see what he was._

"You'll…?" Lyra asked, her voice breaking. Leaf nodded to Mewtwo, who stepped nervously forwards, arms held out, offering the light to Arceus. Lyra dropped to her knees, tears pouring as it floated over to Arceus, who examined it closely. Crystal and Gold kneeled next to her, hugging her in support. Leaf put her arm around Daisy's shoulders as the woman fell into full sobs again, smiling through her own tears at Mew and Mewtwo.

The images around them changed, all of them showing Blue, scenes from his life and memories. Daisy featured prominently among them, and Professor Oak, and Leaf, and Red, and Pokémon Leaders, and the Elite Four, and his Pokémon, and Gold and Crystal and other trainers he'd fought, and Lyra…

All of this flashed by in moments as the light, in front of Arceus, grew, larger and larger, becoming a huge oblong that began to develop features, smaller offshoot oblongs that visibly becoming arms and legs as the details grew, an orb at the end forming the shape of a head covered in spiky hair…

"B-Blue!" Daisy screamed as colour spread across the figure, like drops of paint in water. The colours filled out, strengthened, pale skin gaining colour, air beginning to rush, and the nose and mouth moved slightly, taking in their first breath, inflating new lungs…

_It is done,_ Arceus said as the figure was lowered gently to their feet. Daisy instantly gathered him up into her arms, crying and hugging him like a small child. Silver awkwardly handed Leaf a handkerchief as she bawled her own eyes out watching the reunion, and promptly turned the same colour as his hair as Gold and Crystal grinned at him. Lyra couldn't help kneeling next to Daisy, helping her hold Blue up, desperate to touch him herself, confirm that it was real, no fake or illusion. It was true. He was warm, and breathing lightly. Blissey was giving him an automatic checkup, but she was still smiling, so she'd found no problems. _He will wake up soon, when he realizes that he is alive._

"Th… thank… you…" Lyra cried, hugging Daisy and Blue. Mew smiled at them, and then looked curiously at Arceus. As ever, it was expressionless, but something about its aura suggested a smile.

_All of you are not my creations, but whoever did create you… I admire their work. _Arceus said, prompting them all to look at it. _Still, this place is for my creations, and mine alone. You must leave now, and I will ensure that you can never return._

"Arceus," Silver said suddenly, to the others' surprise, "I have one question. You created this world. Could you not have stopped Kyogre and Groudon and Rayquaza? Could you not control things to avoid such fighting, such danger? Make the world a perfectly safe place for people and Pokémon?"

_It is not so easy, to control all,_ Arceus said softly. _Oh, I could. But what is the point of creating slaves and tools?_ The images around them changed, showing the Mew at play, people playing with Pokémon, fighting with them, cooking, painting, raising children, growing gardens… _There are some things that cannot be created. They must be _grown_. And I am sure there can be no greater joy… than creating something so simple, and seeing it grow into something so magnificent, all on its own…_

Arceus and the Mew faded away as light overtook everything; images of the world surrounded them, people and Pokémon, places that they knew, places they didn't, but all of them, playing, fighting, growing, _living_…

It wasn't until they were sitting on a beach somewhere, with Blue propped up between Daisy and Lyra, that she realized that he'd opened his eyes.

-P-

_Was that Deus Ex Machina or what? XD Oh, and what Arceus said… yeah. That's why Pokémon and people are so different. To continue my analogy from earlier, explaining the Cthulu, that makes Pokémon Wii games, the Missing One (I really hope you know what it is by now, though admittedly if you never played the first generation you might not…) a PS3 game, and humanity are basically… Gamecube games. From a different platform, yeah, but not so different as to be incompatible._

_Also, I'm curious as to who or what people think the Missing One is. I know exactly what it is, but since I've never stated its actual name in the fic I wonder how many people got it. (It might go completely over your head if you never played the Generation I games, though, or never played them… creatively… XDXD)_

_This is the final chapter, and the next is the epilogue. _

_**Has Mewtwo ever met Mew before in this universe?**__ Possibly. Both are rather inscrutable characters, and Mewtwo's been a loner for a long time now. He's certainly always been aware of Mew's existence, and he sought out information about his own creation and would of course have come across data about Mew in the process._

_**What are the SinJoh Ruins?**__ They're only accessible in HeartGold/SoulSilver via a special event. With an Arceus first in your party and thus following right behind you, try to enter the research house in the Ruins of Alph and the head researcher will run out, freak out at the sight of Arceus, and drag you into a special chamber of the Ruins. From there, you're teleported to the SinJoh Ruins, where you meet Cynthia, who explains that they're located high in the mountains at the point where Sinnoh meets Johto, and that the carvings inside are very mysterious. When you go inside, Arceus stands in the middle of the carvings, and then you can choose to have it create a Dialga, Palkia or Giratina egg. What follows is a trippy but awesome visual sequence that ends with you holding a Level 1 Dialga, Palkia or Giratina of your very own. In my canon, there's a little more to that place…_

_**Is the Garden of Origin in the afterlife?**__ No. It's just on a separate plane of existence._

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


	22. Chapter XXI

_**Chapter XXI**_

"What… happened…?" Blue asked, and then yelped as he was glomped by a sobbing Daisy and Lyra, Leaf piling in a moment later. "Ladies! Air! Please!"

"Yeah, girls," Gold sniggered. "I don't really think we're getting back in there…"

"Back… where?" Blue gasped, sitting upright and rubbing his head. "Hey, thanks," he added as Lyra handed him his jacket, which she'd been clutching for some time. "Last thing I properly remember… was in the Ruins of Alph. After that's a _mess_, but I think… I…"

"You _died_," Daisy sniffed. "Don't you _ever_ do that again, you hear me? Never!"

"Never?" Blue asked, completely deadpan. Daisy just hugged him again, sobbing.

"You're only here right now because of Arceus," Lyra said, wiping her eyes, still hardly believing it. Then she looked at Leaf. "Wait, I thought Arceus was going to wipe our memories of that place. But I can remember…"

"That's…" Leaf looked confused too. "Wait, that's right. I wonder why he didn't…"

_The protection to your memories was my doing,_ Mewtwo said aloofly.

"Can you _do_ that?" Silver asked, crossing his arms. "Arceus' decrees can control Pokémon completely…"

_And that has what to do with me?_

Silver rolled his eyes, but Leaf burst out laughing at his tone. Gold held up his hand.

"Gimme five," he said solemnly. "Or three, or whatever. You've earned it." Mewtwo stared at his hand for a moment, probably taking the time to mindread what a high-five was, then shrugged and slapped Gold's palm. Blue stared at Mewtwo.

"Who or what is that?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. Daisy put a hand on his arm as he stood up, in case he was unsteady, but Arceus had remade him in top shape.

"Oh, you haven't met Mewtwo!" Leaf said, looking between the two of them. "Blue, this is Mewtwo. He was genetically engineered from Mew DNA by scientists on Cinnabar Island. Red made friends with him, and so did I. He's not very trusting of humans…" she looked around at everyone, smiling. "Or at least, he didn't used to be."

"I'm glad you are now," Lyra said, unable to stop smiling. "He saved your life, Blue. He's an incredible Pokémon. Mewtwo… thank you."

"Thanks," Blue said, grinning. "I've just met you and I already owe you my life!"

_You're welcome,_ Mewtwo said, smiling a little. _I am glad that this time, I could save a life…_

"So're we," Lyra said, doing a little happy dance and hugging Blue again, before going red and letting go. Crystal winked at her, making her go even redder.

"You might want to split, Mewtwo," Silver said, looking at the horizon. "Wherever we are, we've been found…" he indicated a couple large figures which were rapidly flying closer. Mewtwo started.

"Hey, Mewtwo," Crystal said, before he vanished. "Even if you're nervous about other humans… you're our friend now. You trust us, right?"

_Yes, _Mewtwo said with a nod. _All of you… are humans I trust. Thank you._

Then he teleported away before he was seen by the approaching Dragonite and Metagross.

-P-

"… _of course I can't tell anyone anything about the Garden of Origin, but I've been able to suggest some of the things that we found out based on current data… for example, Mew being the progenitor of all Pokémon. It's been suspected anyway, and I pointed out that moves like Metronome couldn't work if the Pokémon didn't actually know those techniques somewhere in their brain, and that all Pokémon probably have the capacity to evolve into any other Pokémon if exposed to the correct stimulus that caused the right signals to be sent from their brains… Ditto's a Pokémon that seems to have conscious control over that process, so there are a lot of experiments going on with elemental stones and the like… this could be a huge breakthrough… oooh, take that, scientific community and your scepticism of "excitable little girls"!"_

"As long as you're having fun, Leaf," Lyra laughed, listening to Leaf babble on happily and relaxing in the shade of the gigantic gothic castle. It was a couple of months after they had returned from Hoenn, having all briefly developed the amnesia that Arceus had intended when questioned by the various League authorities. They'd all gone back to Pallet Town to celebrate a little and be hugged to death by various worried parents and grandparents, before getting back to their lives.

Gold and Crystal were the first to leave, Crystal managing to escape her mother's grip and promptly deciding to flee back to Hoenn with Gold, who was dead set on getting his last two badges in the two weeks before the Hoenn League, which ended up being delayed anyway as the League was involved in helping repair the damage caused by the raging storms and searching for the three Orbs. Said Orbs had "mysteriously vanished" (as Crystal said, while slyly zipping her bag closed over something smooth and blue). They were currently hanging out at Ever Grande City, killing time by indulging Crystal and hunting every recess of Hoenn's Victory Road for rare and powerful Pokémon.

Silver was officially listed in the Dragon Clan registry, as Lyra'd heard from Lance, and had taken to wearing a cape, which seemed to be mandatory for powerful dragon trainers. It looked a little pretentious (okay, this was Silver: it looked _totally_ pretentious), but it was hard to deny that anyone dismounting a giant dragon with their cape flowing around them looked pretty cool. Lyra wondered if it would be bad form to ask if the capes were common for this reason rather than any ancient dress.

He was commuting frequently to scientific conventions at the moment, quietly comparing the Dragon Clan's ancient legends with scientific discoveries, mostly Leaf's. Leaf herself was investigating with gusto, coming out with several earth-shattering theories in a matter of days. She innocently claimed that she'd been "inspired" by what she saw at the Ruins of Alph.

Mewtwo went… wherever he went. Lyra had seen him just once since, when he'd randomly appeared one night when she and Blue were camping on the slopes of Mt Coronet, apparently just to say hi. As Leaf had said, he'd revealed himself to be full of questions- "as curious as a child," as Leaf put it. With an immense knowledge of Pokémon and broad and varied world experiences between them, Blue and Lyra were more than happy to answer them. Lyra sincerely hoped that it wouldn't be long until he found the answers he really needed.

Daisy was in Sinnoh, to Lyra's surprise; as a teenager, she'd been a top coordinator of the Hoenn-style Pokémon contests, but had never turned her hand to the Sinnoh-style contests. Leaving her Pokémon care service in Mrs Ketchum's able hands (and those of Leaf, who was spending a lot more time at home lately and doing a lot of her work from there), she'd purchased a few outfits and taken off to Sinnoh with Blissey and an abandoned Mr Mime she'd adopted. She was winning ribbons all over the place, too.

The contests probably weren't the only reason she wanted to go to Sinnoh; after all, Blue was in Sinnoh as well. He'd spent three days dealing with backed up challenges, and then, to Lyra's surprise, she'd walked out of Candice's gym covered in snow and shivering and he'd dropped a coat around her shoulders, chastising her for coming so far north without a proper coat. She _might_ have hugged him a little too enthusiastically on seeing him, but, hey, he hugged right back.

And now he was lying on the grass next to her, napping in the sunlight, having watched her shoot through the rest of the Sinnoh gyms, travelled with her, and generally been with her almost the entire two months since he returned from the dead, and Lyra was starting to wonder if she hadn't been left behind in the Garden of Origin somehow. After all, it was meant to be paradise.

"_So, speaking of fun, how're you and Blue doing_?" Leaf asked wickedly, causing Lyra to glance at the napping Leader to see if he'd noticed her blushing. Thankfully, he remained asleep, occasionally shifting a little in his sleep. He developed good habits quickly; if he fell completely still when asleep, Lyra tended to have panic attacks and have to poke him awake, though that hadn't happened for a few nights now.

"It's brilliant, Leaf!" she squealed once she had confirmed Blue wasn't listening. "It's sooo much fun travelling with him! Oh man, you should have _seen _how we destroyed these two mouthy kids in a double battle! And…" she couldn't help giggling. "Gue-ess what happened the other night!"

"_Lyra_!" Leaf gasped, giggling. "_Wow, girl! Was it fun?_"

"I so hope you're not speaking from the gutter, Leaf," Lyra laughed. "We're keeping to our own sleeping bags, even if those sleeping bags _are_ getting pretty close together. No, I mean we were just getting to Victory Road, and we were on our own, really _gorgeous_ night, so many stars… and he kissed me!"

Leaf whistled over the phone line. "_Good! You better look after him!_"

"You have a serious brother complex going on there," Lyra said. "Now, your turn. How're things with Silver?"

"_Wh-what… hey, y'know, wanna hear my theories about the Missing One?_" Leaf stammered. Lyra could _hear_ her going red and tutted. Leaf carefully ignored her. "_I'm certain it came here through some distortion in reality. No idea what caused it or how yet, but that thing came through, and it came through from an alternate reality where the very basic physical laws were different from our own. It couldn't get back, it just got sealed off by the Unown into its own pocket dimension… Unown can travel between dimensions but it's unlikely that they can travel between realities, or at least all realities… Anyway, it was drawn to human settlements because it could tell that we were a little out of place. It was marginally more comfortable with us than Pokémon. Marginally. It's kinda pitiful, really…_"

"You're _pitying_ it?" Lyra said incredulously. "Did you miss the whole destroying-the-world thing, not to mention…" a lump rose in her throat as she glanced as Blue's now-peaceful face, and she was driven to poke him in the arm until his grunted in annoyance and rolled over in his sleep.

"_How could I forget?_" Leaf said softly. "_But… I keep thinking how that thing's pocket dimension, designed to imitate its universe, looked to myself and the others who ended up there. Our world looked the same to the Missing One. It was just as terrified, just as confused. And it wanted to destroy everything in the hope that it could rebuild something it could understand. I think that was its motivation, or probably something similar. Its thought processes or whatever might not be something that conforms to our logic or sensibilities, again..._"

"I guess…" Lyra said, frowning. "Hey… Leaf… something Arceus said has been bothering me…"

"_What he said about us,_" Leaf confirmed. "_About humans. That we're not from here. I have theories about that too._"

"Fire away."

"_You asked for it. It's possible that the distortion in realities that let the Missing One through isn't a one-off, that natural distortions between realties are not uncommon. Sometimes it lets through something from such a different reality that it dies or outright disintegrates quickly. I'd say creatures like the Missing One are probably rare, though obviously it's pretty much impossible to tell. Sometimes creatures wander through such similar realities that they don't even realize that they've gone through a distortion. Sometimes they come from different realities, but not so different that they can't survive. I think that's us. We're from somewhere with the same or similar physical laws, but developed biologically in a different manner from Pokémon. We're clearly not biologically related to Pokémon, which makes us a unique species on this world. Arceus himself stated that we came from "elsewhere"._"

"There are legends in Sinnoh of Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf giving gifts to humans…"

"_To help us become part of this world, perhaps. Whether they gave things or took them away… probably they'd decided that we could be assimilated into this world and took steps to make it smoother. I'm not sure, but I'm grateful for it. They could have easily decided that we were a threat like the Missing One, and destroyed us…_"

"Is that why we survived as a species?" Lyra asked. "We had to have been fairly numerous at first, to have become a species, but there was only one of the Missing One…"

"_Distortions between our reality, or similar realities, with humans, might have simply been more common. Or maybe it was a large distortion that took numerous people. Or you could be right, Arceus simply took a liking to us and created more like he recreated Blue. I couldn't say. The only one we could ask… well, we're not supposed to remember that he exists. Though since he claims to be omnipotent, he probably knows anyway and either doesn't care or trusts that we really won't get chatty about it._"

"Yeah…" Lyra shivered at the thought of what might happen if Arceus decided they _weren't_ trustworthy, and how abruptly and without warning such consequences might be. She shook it off. "This is all very interesting, but you know what phenomenon I _really_ want to know about!"

"_What are you talking about?_" Leaf said, a little too quickly.

"Come on, Leaf," she chastised her. "Silver! I didn't skimp on the news, you'd better not!"

"_We-eee-ell… he comes over a lot to join in my research,_" Leaf admitted. "_He knows so many cool legends! It's fun having him around, he's got a pretty sharp sense of humour, but he's nice really… So _not_ the jerk you said he was._"

"Sooooo… nothing's happened? C'mon, Leaf, I'm here for the juicy details!" Lyra complained. "I shared!"

"_Okay, okay… nothing's actually happened, buuuut… I'd like it to…_" Leaf was cut off when Lyra squealed loudly, which finally woke Blue up. He started and sat upright, rubbing his eyes and staring at Lyra questioningly.

"Do I want to know?" he asked. Lyra held up her hand to tell him to wait a moment and giggled. He shrugged and looked at his watch.

"Well, good luck to both of you," she said to Leaf. "You'd _better_ let me know if anything interesting happens!"

"_I promise,_" Leaf said. "_And I promise I'll tune into Sinnoh TV tonight, you can stream it over the internet. Good luck!_"

"Ah, is it that time already?" Lyra yelped as Blue tapped at his watch with an amused smirk on his face. "Later, Leaf!" She snapped her Pokégear closed and jumped to her feet. "Agh, I'm gonna be late! Come on!"

"Can't you run any faster?" He teased, catching up to her pretty easily, being ridiculously tall as he was (was he always that tall or was it an Arceus upgrade?). "I skived my gym duties for the nth time to come see for myself that you kick as much ass in Sinnoh as you do in Kanto and Johto. You don't want to miss the League!"

"Aww, I could be the last one there and I'd still beat them all, just you watch!" Lyra responded. Blue grinned and rolled his eyes, taking her hand to pull her forward and into the Sinnoh League headquarters.

"Let's go!"

-P-

… _I'm pretty sure that everything I said about alternate realities in this fic is bollocks, but… quantum. That's my excuse XD_

_Anyway, yeah… there's my first Pokémon serial, spawner of a hundred oneshots already XD Trust me, this fandom's probably not heard the last of me… though I should really get back to work on that DC fic… But first I'm away to London for a week, so I thought I'd upload the last chapter/epilogue before I go instead of leaving you guys hanging. (And congrats to everyone who went "Oh holy crap it's MissingNo isn't it?" Yes, yes it was. That thing gave me more nightmares than any horror movie… *shivers*)_

_Anyway, hope you enjoyed the fic, and please review to let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!_

_Gotta go catch 'em all!_

I would never presume to claim Pokémon as my own. I bow at Tajiri Satoshi-sama's feet for its creation. 


End file.
